Many economists agree that inequality has risen in recent decades, but that’s where the agreement ends. Measuring the trend is contentious, and it’s more than just a methodological squabble. How severe one sees the problem informs the policies proposed, from no change to a host of new taxes aimed at correcting the imbalance. In this special episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we present a conversation between two economists who take very different views on inequality: Chicago Booth’s Steve Kaplan and UC Berkeley’s Emmanuel Saez.

Academic models often built on the assumption of how rational utility-maximising individuals would behave. But as behavioral scientists have long pointed out, real people don’t actually behave that way. Does that mean that we behave irrationally, and if so why? Or is our behavior actually more rational than it may appear? In this special episode, we present Chicago Booth’s Richard Thaler, an economics Nobel laureate, in conversation with Harvard’s Steven Pinker.

Do stock prices reflect all publicly available information? Are they entirely a reflection of the fundamental values of their respective companies? Or is there something else that helps to explain episodes of surprisingly high volatility, from market-wide plunges to the sudden surges of meme stocks? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we explore the inelastic markets hypothesis, which suggests that fund flows and investor demand play an important role in market behavior.

Exploring the surge of funding in AI startups and its impact on the tech industry. Discussing data ownership in healthcare, AI's role in medicine, and the risks associated with investing in startups. Emphasizing the importance of value creation and customer acquisition in AI applications.

The loss of faith in free markets that followed the 2007–10 financial crisis was followed up by a number of political developments that suggested the ascendency of populism and a more skeptical attitude toward democracy among many people. What can be done to protect democracy from this erosion of trust? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we feature a conversation, held at Chicago Booth’s London campus, between Booth’s Raghuram G. Rajan and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, in which they discuss the health of democracy, why it has come under pressure, and why the middle class is crucial to preserving it.

Individuals acting in their own self-interest are, according to classical economics, an important part of a productive, efficient economy. And yet, selfishness is among the personality traits best known for impeding healthy human relationships. How do we separate the two concepts? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth’s John Paul Rollert explores how we define the line between them, and why that line matters.  

Lying is wrong, right? And yet, almost everyone lies sometimes, and most of us see lying as not only acceptable but preferable in some situations. How does context affect the importance of the truth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we examine the findings of research into how lying is perceived.

Total household debt in the United States is in the neighborhood of $17 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Who’s funding that debt? One theory is that ultrawealthy Americans are, through their excess savings, and that the result is a destabilizing cycle of inequality. This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at the research behind this argument and what this dynamic could mean for the US economy.

Facebook and Google are each facing antitrust scrutiny in the United States, and they have come under the gaze of European regulators as well. But most people don’t pay money to ei-ther company for the services they provide, so can Facebook and Google really be said to have monopolies? And if they do, does it matter? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Pod-cast, we revisit a debate between Booth’s Luigi Zingales and George Mason’s Tyler Cowen about the price of the tech giants’ dominance.

When a business’s customers object to its conduct, they generally have two options: exit (vote with their wallets and cut ties with the company) and voice (boycott, protest, or otherwise raise awareness of their complaint). Social media has changed the calculus behind this choice for both individuals and companies. On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth’s John Paul Rollert considers the impact of this change and how the relative appeal of exit and voice have evolved over time.