The Pie: An Economics Podcast

Lesley Turner, an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, dives into the reasons behind high college dropout rates and effective strategies for re-enrollment. She discusses a mentoring experiment aimed at helping former students return to their studies and the systemic barriers they face. Turner also explores the complexities of federal loan policies for graduate students, revealing their unintended consequences on tuition prices and enrollment rates, sparking a vital conversation on education access.

Carolyn Pfluger, an Associate Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, explores fascinating insights into economic behavior and policy perceptions. She reveals that Americans overstate their church attendance and discusses how recessions can paradoxically improve health. The conversation includes the critical role of public perception of the Federal Reserve’s actions and the unexpected consequences of pesticide use tied to declining bat populations, shedding light on the intertwining of economics and ecology.

Many low-income countries face a dilemma: keep taxes low and remain unable to build state capacity, or raise taxes and risk political unrest. In this episode of The Pie, Ben Krause, Executive Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, shares insights from an experiment in Haiti demonstrating how the provision of public goods can boost tax compliance.

Lubos Pastor is a distinguished finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, delving into the hidden costs of corporate greenhouse gas emissions. He discusses redefining corporate value to include environmental impacts, emphasizing the need for innovative metrics. The conversation also highlights the implications of the Paris Agreement on U.S. emissions, addressing how consumer behavior influences energy demand. Finally, a lightning round reveals personal reflections on economics and its real-world significance, peppered with humor.

When some US states allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances without physician oversight, a serious unintended consequence took hold: Doctors found themselves competing with those nurses for patients. Molly Schnell, BFI Saieh Family Fellow and assistant professor at Northwestern University, along with her colleagues—Janet Currie of Princeton and Anran Li of Cornell—examine the resultant uptick in prescriptions in controlled substances, and the impact on patients.

James Robinson, a University Professor with appointments in both UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy as well as the Political Science Department in the Division of Social Sciences, is the university’s latest faculty member to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. On this episode of “An Extra Slice of The Pie,” Robinson joins Ben Krause, BFI Executive Director and new, semi-regular guest host, to discuss his research and the path to a Nobel. Tune in to learn more about Robinson’s early challenges as a young researcher, his major breakthroughs, and his ideas for future work.

Bats are considered a natural pesticide. When they began to die out due to an invasive fungus, farmers turned to chemicals to control pests. The result, as Eyal Frank of the Harris school of Public Policy describes on this episode of The Pie, was skyrocketing infant deaths. Tune in to learn more about the vast ramifications of ecosystem disruptions.

Private equity investors made some $200 billion worth of healthcare acquisitions in 2021, and $1 trillion worth in the 10 years leading up to 2023. In this episode of The Pie, Maggie Shi, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how private equity impacts hospitals along multiple dimensions, including patient volumes, revenues, employment, and technology adoption.

When the Soo Line threatened to expand into the Great Northern Railway’s territory in 1905, the two companies entered a fierce competition for marketshare in which the they rapidly constructed nearly 500 miles of rail tracks and over 50 new towns. In this episode of The Pie, Chad Syverson, the George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business, explores this unique historical episode, shedding light on how acts of strategic competition, past and present, can affect our social welfare.

Carolin Pflueger, an Associate Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, dives into the intricate relationship between public perception and monetary policy. She reveals how the Federal Reserve's rapid interest rate hikes in response to COVID-era inflation hinge on how the public interprets these decisions. The discussion probes market reactions, the importance of effective communication from central banks, and the dynamics of inflation expectations. Plus, a light-hearted lightning round brings some humor to academic life.