Chicago Booth Review Podcast

For the past 20 years, the growth in US productivity has been sluggish at about 1.2%, compared to the 3% pace at which it grew from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Chicago Booth’s Chad Syverson says that if US productivity hadn’t slowed, the US economy would be bigger to the tune of $25,000 per person. So what’s happening to productivity, and is it finally about to turn the corner?

Climate change is a global problem, so it can’t be solved by a limited number of countries acting alone. But can we develop and enforce global rules? In this episode, we hear from Chicago Booth’s Christian Leuz, an accounting professor who advocates for companies to report their carbon emissions. This is our second podcast with Leuz about emissions reporting and climate change. We released the first in March under the title, “Could reporting carbon emissions help cut them?”

The ancient Greeks thought a lot about strategy, which is why strategists in business, politics, and the military still draw on their wisdom today. So what business lessons can we learn from the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey? In this episode, we hear from Chicago Booth’s Greg Bunch, who teaches new venture strategy to MBA students and executives. When he’s advising entrepreneurs, when does he urge them to be more like Agamemnon, who was able to bring people together for a common cause, or Odysseus, known for his strategic mind and his ability to outwit opponents, or Achilles, the most skilled of all warriors? And what characteristics do today’s business leaders share with the legendary leaders of ancient Greece?

If you want to lose weight, you first need to know how much you weigh, how many calories you’re eating a day, and how many minutes of exercise you’re getting. Now imagine you post all that information on your social media page and ask your contacts to hold you accountable. Could that same idea help us tackle global warming? In this episode, Chicago Booth’s Christian Leuz says the same transparency that helps regulators and investors understand what businesses are doing financially could help combat the damage they do to the environment.

Most workers in the US say they are feeling angry, anxious, and disengaged from their jobs. Why is that, and what can be done? In this episode, we hear from one of the world’s leading researchers on motivation, Chicago Booth’s Ayelet Fishbach, who calls this “a crisis of motivation” whose roots lie in how we work, and how we think about work. The motivation crisis has consequences for both employees and employers. So how can we get ourselves and our teams excited about work again?

Debates on charity focus on financial aid versus self-sufficiency. Cotton Mather's unorthodox views and Franklin/Carnegie's strategic philanthropy are discussed. Carnegie emphasizes narrowing wealth disparity through philanthropy and educational endowments.

Would you speak up at work if one colleague said something that unintentionally discriminated against another? And if you did, what would you actually say, and when and how would you say it? In this episode, we continue our Business Practice miniseries, where we ask people to script what they would say in a challenging workplace scenario. Chicago Booth behavioral science professor George Wu analyzes the results.

The movie “Gone with the Wind” depicts a genteel, harmonious world torn apart as the old way of life comes to an end. Behind that gentility was the inhumanity of slavery, whose end transformed the economy of the American South. Morally, that was a good thing, but, contrary to the depiction in the movie, was it also positive for the economy? In this episode, we talk to Chicago Booth’s Rick Hornbeck, whose research with Trevon Logan, a professor of economics at The Ohio State University, suggests that emancipation created huge economic value, a boost to the US economy that was even bigger than the introduction of the railroad.

Experts discuss the Fed's dilemma in managing inflation amid a robust labor market, exploring potential rate changes. The episode delves into bank oversight, regulatory challenges, and political pressures on economic policy. It also examines global economic trends, geopolitical risks, and strategies for navigating the job market and building fulfilling careers.

We are used to paying different prices for airline tickets, Uber rides, and hotel rooms, but can you imagine a time when all sorts of retailers use data to tailor their marketing and pricing for each individual customer? Does fairness require prices to be equal for everyone, or do certain groups and individuals deserve discounts? In this episode, Chicago Booth’s Jean-Pierre Dubé and EngineBI’s Jon Morris discuss the ethics and practicalities of personalizing pricing.