EconoFact Chats

What are the ways in which public finance -- the study of government taxing and spending -- can and should address issues related to the inequitable racial impacts of government policy? This week on EconoFact Chats Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discusses recognizing and analyzing racial disparities fostered by public policy and how public finance policies can better address past injustices. Bill is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy and Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He served as president of the National Tax Association from 2019 to 2020.

Antitrust laws have been part of U.S. legislation since the Sherman Act of 1890, and the Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts of 1914. Does existing legislation provide a useful framework to check anti-competitive practices today? This week on EconoFact Chats, Dan Richards discusses the many forms of monopoly and monopsony power, how U.S. regulatory attitudes towards anti-trust have shifted, and what tools are available to address monopolistic practices today. Dan is a Professor of Economics at Tufts University.

Union membership has been declining for 60 years but there are incipient signs of a reemergence. Why did unionization decline and what might be prompting its return? How do unions affect wages, as well as the workplace environment? More broadly, what is the evidence on the effects of unions on overall productivity and public policy? Aaron Sojourner discusses these issues in this week’s EconoFact Chats episode. Aaron is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He served as senior economist for labor at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Presidents Obama and Trump.

This week on EconoFact Chats, Giovanni Peri, founding director of the Global Migration Center at UC Davis discusses the many roles that immigrants play in the US economy, how current labor shortages are linked to international travel disruptions and immigration restrictions, and what natural experiments like the Mariel boatlift of 1980 can tell us about the impact of immigration on the wages of native-born workers. Giovanni is Professor in the Department of Economics at University of California, Davis. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

There has been a widening divergence in mortality rates across states over the past four decades. While this is partially explained by differences in education, income and “deaths of despair” -- those related to alcohol, drugs, or suicide -- there are also place-based effects beyond these factors. This week on EconoFact Chats, Ellen Meara discusses the effect of the health environment and state-level policies on mortality rates, and how the breakdown of social safeguards contributes to worse health outcomes. Ellen is Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University and an elected member of the National Board of Medicine.

Racism in the United States has created an enduring wealth gap between Black and White Americans. This gap is rooted both in slavery itself and in the systematic exclusion of Black people from government assistance and social safety programs beginning after the Civil War and continuing through the Jim Crow era and after. Although it’s not easy to capture the magnitude of this injustice, paying reparations to Black Americans is one way to begin to correct it. This week on EconoFact Chats, Professor William (Sandy) Darity Jr. explains the history of the racial wealth gap and why reparations remain necessary today. Sandy Darity is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. His most recent book, coauthored with A. Kirsten Mullen, is 'From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century.'

The American public has always struggled with immigration policy, particularly as it intersects with race, poverty and economic opportunity. This week on EconoFact Chats, Tara Watson discusses her new book co-authored with Kalee Thompson, The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in the Age of Fear. The book is both an economic analysis of the effects of immigration on the United States economy, and the story of six immigrant families and their struggles. The podcast focuses on the sources and the extent of unauthorized immigration, the net fiscal costs of unauthorized immigration, and policies to address unauthorized immigration under the Obama and Trump administrations. Tara Watson is a Professor of Economics at Williams College.  She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Treasury from 2015 to 2016, and is currently a Rubenstein Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Economic forecasting is rarely easy. This is especially true in the current environment, as the relationship between economic activity and public health metrics such as the percentage of people vaccinated, or the number of COVID cases, remains far from predictable.  Key macroeconomic questions remain. Is higher inflation likely to persist, or will it prove transitory? Will businesses be able to boost productivity despite the tight labor market, and supply chain disruptions? And what are some of the most useful metrics to assess economic recovery in the current environment?  This week on EconoFact Chats, Julia Coronado discusses these questions, and offers her perspective on which metrics best indicate the health of the economy.

Even as the initial economic shocks of COVID-19 abate, labor shortages, supply constraints, demand shifts, and inflation continue to cloud the U.S.' macroeconomic outlook. To discuss whether these phenomena might prove transitory, or more durable, EconoFact Chats welcomes back a panel of distinguished economic journalists: Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times, Scott Horsley of NPR, Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal, and Heather Long of the Washington Post.  The panelists also break down the major economic stories of the past year, and discuss how labor force participation, wages, inflation, and monetary policy might evolve as the second pandemic year draws to a close.

In the wake of the economic crisis of the 1970s, and again, in the aftermath of 2008, macroeconomists have had to rethink their understanding of the drivers of recessions, as well as the most effective policy responses to them. This week on EconoFact Chats, Karen Dynan and Michael Klein discuss how past recessions have shaped today’s fiscal and monetary policy, the role of inflation, and inflation expectations, and how policy makers can be better prepared for future crises. Karen is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. She served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Treasury from 2014 to 2017.