The Pie: An Economics Podcast

Economist Jack Mountjoy from the University of Chicago discusses the returns of higher education. He examines the impact of college choices on student trajectories, cost-benefit analysis of enrolling academically marginal students, and the value of college education for these students, highlighting earnings, dropout rates, and societal benefits.

In this engaging discussion, Milena Almagro, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth, dives into the transportation challenges plaguing urban areas, particularly Chicago. She reveals how policies like congestion pricing and improved public transit can alleviate gridlock and pollution. Drawing on innovative research using cell phone data, she emphasizes the disparities in transit access linked to income levels. Milena also highlights the economic implications of congestion and shares strategies to enhance public transport efficiency.

A small number of companies are responsible for a substantial amount of the discrimination in today’s labor market. Who are they? In this episode of The Pie, Evan Rose, the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in Economics discusses results from his recent experiment to measure discrimination among the largest employers in the United States.

When the Great Recession hit in 2007, it produced the largest decline in US employment since the Great Depression. It also substantially reduced mortality. In this episode of The Pie, Matt Notowidigdo discusses how economic downturns can lead to valuable health gains that may even offset some of the negative consequences of recessions.

Panel discussion with Raghuram Rajan, Charles Evans, and Randall Kroszner on central bank responsibilities, unintended consequences of monetary policy, implications of altering inflation targets, challenges faced by Chairman Powell, distinguishing actions for financial stability, and unconventional bank stress testing scenarios.

Anti-democratic sentiment is on the rise across Latin America. This episode of The Pie explores the evolving political and economic landscape of Latin America, highlighting the region's experimentation with democratization and the growing threats of authoritarianism. Luis Martinez, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how economic reforms and pro-market transformations, despite their benefits, have left segments of the population feeling underrepresented and disillusioned.

Children whose parents have college degrees are often more skilled readers than children whose parents didn't attend college. In this episode of The Pie, Harris Policy Professor Ariel Kalil discusses how certain technologies can help improve literacy skills for disadvantaged children.

Russian-born economist Konstantin Sonin, Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, joins The Pie to provide an update on the economic impacts of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Sonin discusses how the war affects standards of living and output in both countries, and shares his predictions for what the future holds.

Many mines in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are controlled by armed groups that frequently engage in conflict with nearby civilians. In this episode of The Pie, Hans Christensen, Professor of Accounting at Chicago Booth, and Samuel Chang, PhD student in Accounting, discuss what happens when mines become certified as conflict-free. Hint: It’s not what you might expect.

In this lively discussion, Amy Finkelstein, a health economist from MIT and co-author of "We've Got You Covered", teams up with Mark McClellan, former FDA commissioner and Duke University professor specializing in health policy. They dive into the urgent need for U.S. healthcare reform, dissecting political dynamics and comparing international models. The talk covers risk adjustment in insurance, the complexities of funding healthcare innovations, and critiques the high spending versus poor outcomes paradox. Together, they explore a vision for a fairer and more efficient system.