The Hidden Curriculum

In this discussion, Nathaniel Hendren, a renowned MIT economist and director of Opportunity Insights, shares his wealth of knowledge on public policy evaluation. He explains the marginal value of public funds and its crucial role in effective policy-making. Hendren also touches on the challenges of communicating complex economic impacts and offers valuable advice to budding scholars about journal submissions. Plus, he emphasizes the importance of accountability in academic publishing, providing listeners with a deeper understanding of the economics landscape.

In this episode, we talk with Samuel Mann about navigating academia as a queer individual/navigating queer research in economics. Sam is an Associate Economist at RAND Corporation. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Economics and LGBT+ Policy Lab. Sam received PhD in Economics from Swansea University in the UK in 2020. Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Ohio State University. Henry Morris is our main editor. He is a student at the University of Virginia studying computer science and mathematics.  Show notes: In the episode, we mentioned many resources for people interested in learning more about LGBTQ+ opportunities: American Economic Association CSQIEP Queer Economics Mentoring Conference Economics of LGBTQ+ Individuals Virtual Seminar Series LGBTQ Research starter pack by Dario Sansone Sam's current favorite paper: A Review of the Economics of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Recommendations of the Week: Sam recommends checking out Data is Plural Alex recommends rollerblade wheels for your office chair Sebastian recommends a super easy recipe for Pomodoro sauce

In this episode, we talk with Sarah Miller about accessing restricted data. Sarah Miller is an associate professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Sarah’s research interests are in health economics and, in particular, the short-term and long-term effects of public policies that expand health insurance coverage and the effects of income on health and well-being. In 2022, Dr. Miller was awarded the ASHEcon Medal, given by the American Society of Health Economists to an economist aged 40 or younger who has made the most significant contributions to the field of health economics. She is also a co-editor for the Journal of Public Economics. Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Ohio State University. Henry Morris is our main editor. Show notes During the episode, we talked about the restricted access data the census has, which can be found on this link: https://www.researchdatagov.org/ Sarah also recommends checking out this previously restricted-use Census data that was recently made public: https://joe.cjars.org/ Sarah's paper is "Maternal and Infant Health Inequality: New Evidence from Linked Administrative Data," and you can find it here: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30693 This is another great link for data inventory from the census: https://www2.census.gov/about/linkage/data-file-inventory.pdf Recommendations of the week: Sarah recommends playing the game Elden Ring, which can be found on many systems! Sarah's current favorite paper is "Does Welfare Prevent Crime? The Criminal Justice Outcomes of Youth Removed from SSI" Alex recommends stocking up on water and other goodies before the conference starts! Sebastian's recommendation for the week is to play Alto's Odyssey, a mobile game that helps you relax at night or in moments of anxiety!

In this episode, we talk with Gary Hoover. Hoov is the Executive Directory of the Murphy Institute and a Professor of Economics and Affiliate Professor of Law at ⁠Tulane University⁠. ⁠⁠Sebastian Tello-Trillo⁠⁠ is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. ⁠⁠Alex Hollingsworth⁠⁠ is an Associate Professor at Ohio State University Show notes: Hoov recommends checking out WISER (we talked with Rhonda V. Sharpe in our last episode available here) AEA Ombuds Team Hoov's papers on professional misconduct can be found here Hoov's recommendation: Submit to the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy Alex's recommendation: When taking notes on a paper, take them "in your own words". And use Obsidian for note taking Sebastian's recommendation: Use Zotero for references ⁠How to manage references with Zotero⁠

In this episode, we talk with Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe. Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe is about her experience as founding and being the President of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race (WISER). WISER is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)3 research institute. WISER’s mission is to expand women-focused policy research to include the social, economic, cultural, and political well-being of Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous American, and Multiracial women. ⁠Sebastian Tello-Trillo⁠ is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. ⁠Alex Hollingsworth⁠ is an Associate Professor at Ohio State University Show notes: Brach with honey. Rhonda's favorite candy corn.  The other Rhonda Sharp, https://people.unisa.edu.au/rhonda.sharp#Biography Disaggregate data: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0696-1 Structured procrastination: https://structuredprocrastination.com Big Sean: I don't *** with you, Clean version Packages by Vincent Arel-Bundock. Instant Ramen with Garlic

In this episode, we talk with Joe Benitez on working in specialized departments. Joe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management & Policy at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health. His research focuses primarily on the impact of public policy changes on access to care, medically underserved populations and the role of the health care safety net, and the Medicaid program. He has been published is Health Affairs, Health Services Research, and Medical Care, and featured on NPR and U.S. News & World Report. In 2016, he was funded by AcademyHealth’s New Investigator Small Grant Program to study the implications of Medicaid expansion for safety net hospital financing. More recently, Dr. Benitez received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study Medicaid use and participation among transitionally poor households. He is also on the editorial board of Medical Care Research & Review, and he will soon start as a member of the advisory board for the construction of a Medicaid Equity Database to be developed by the University of Minnesota’s State Health Access and Data Assistance Center (SHADAC). Dr. Benitez received his PhD in Health Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he was awarded an R36 Dissertation Grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality to study the long-run effects of the Medically Underserved Area designation program. Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indiana University.

Andrew Friedson, research director at the Milken Institute and author of 'Economics of Healthcare', discusses how to get a book published. They explore teaching methods, productivity tips, varying support from institutions, and personal fulfillment versus department utility. The guest also presents a fascinating paper on plasma donation centers and their impact on people's reliance on payday loans.

We took a little break and now we are back with some great episodes. Some are recorded long ago, some more recently. All are newly edited. Looking forward to a great season :)

This week we have a special episode! We invite a couple of job market candidates to give us their pitch and we have a panel of judges identifying the great things about each pitch and broad lessons for everyone who is crafting the pitch for their paper. The "elevator" pitch is an idea whose objective is to talk about a particular paper to motivate a conversation. Usually job market candidates have to "craft" a pitch since they'll be constantly asked about their job market paper. It is not easy and there are many takes on how to get this done, this is why in this episode we have the hot takes from two professors. Our first panelist is Mary Eschelbach Hansen, she is a professor of economics at American University. Our second panelist is Zach Bethune, an associate professor of economics at Rice University. We have four candidates who have share their pitches with us: Laura Montenovo a PhD student at Indiana University. Job Market paper Alistair Macaulay a postdoc at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford. Job Market Paper  James Flynn a PhD student at UC Boulder. Job Market Paper  Ashley Bradford a PhD student at Indiana University. Job Market Paper.   We hope this is useful to both JMCs and early career scholars honing their skills on marketing a paper. Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indiana University. Recs of the week: Check out Mary Eschelbach Hansen's book Bankrupt in America (with Bradley A. Hansen). This book traces how and why bankruptcy was transformed from an infrequently used provision in the Constitution, to an indispensable tool for businesses, to a central element of the social safety net for ordinary Americans— all in less than a century. Mary recommends for you to check out the pumpkin pie with bourbon recipe from Julia Childs, I think is this one. In addition, listen a Johnny Cash song! Here is a playlist of his work Zach recommends to unplug from your phone and to do something else, maybe read a physical book! He recommends The Infinite Machine, by Camila Russo. You can find all the recommended books on our recommended book page https://bookshop.org/shop/Hiddencurriculum. Also check out Zach's research on his research page and his food rec is to order a Greenberg Smoked Turkey.  Alex recommends the book When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein. 

In this episode we talk with Jessica Calarco about advocating for oneself. Jessica is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research program focuses on systems of inequality, how policies and institutions cater to those with power and privilege while disadvantaging others. Professor Calarco has two books, "Negotiating Opportunities" and "A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum", which is very related to the topics of this podcast! Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indiana University. Show notes: You can find the book and all other books that we have recommended in our Hidden Curriculum library One of the recommendations of the week is Zotero bib. ZoteroBib is a free service that helps you build a bibliography instantly from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software. Find more here: https://zbib.org/faq You can also check out Alex's guide on how to manage reference for research here: https://hollina.github.io/managing-references.html Another recommendation is the Facebook group "Buy Nothing". This is a Facebook group, that aims to have people give out free items to members of their own local community. It's a great way of recycle or ask for favors!