Human Centered

Matthew O. Jackson is perhaps the world’s most renowned scholar of the economics of networks; as a 2005-06 CASBS fellow, he wrote most of his still-influential book Social and Economic Networks. In this wide-ranging conversation with 2025-26 CASBS fellow Rajiv Sethi, Jackson discusses his foundational work on strategic modeling of networks, empirical applications on the role of economic connectedness in influencing people’s life trajectories in the U.S., related multi-disciplinary and cross-national work he is undertaking at the Sant Fe Institute, and recent cutting-edge work using large language models to gain insights into human motivations and behaviors.

Matthew O. Jackson: Stanford faculty page | Personal website | CASBS page | Wikipedia page | Google Scholar page | National Academy of Sciences bio | Stanford profile | SFI page | NBER working papers | Jackson CV |

Rajiv Sethi: Barnard faculty page | Columbia page | CASBS page | Google Scholar page | SFI page | Rajiv's Substack newsletter, Imperfect Information | 

Matt Jackson works referenced in this episode:

Matthew Jackson and Asher Wolinsky, "A Strategic Model of Social and Economic Networks," Journal of Economic Theory (1996)

Matthew Jackson and Alison Watts, "The Evolution of Social and Economic Networks," Journal of Economic Theory (2002)

Raj Chetty, Matthew Jackson, et al., "Social Capital I: Measurement and Associations with Economic Mobiliity," Nature (2022)

Raj Chetty, Matthew Jackson, et al., "Social Capital II: Determinants of Economic Connectedness," Nature (2022)

Chetty, Jackson, et al., Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas (website)

Dynamics of Wealth Inequality project (Santa Fe Institute)

Matthew Jackson, Social and Economic Networks, Princeton University Press (2008)

Matthew Jackson, The Human Network, Penguin Random House (2020)

Mei, Yuan, and Jackson, "A Turing Test of Whether AI Chatbots are Behaviorally Similar to Humans," PNAS (2024)

Xie, Mei, Yuan, and Jackson, "Using Large Language Models to Categorize Strategic Situations and Decipher Motivations Behind Human Behaviors," PNAS (2025)

---

Rajiv Sethi's latest op-ed is "Polymarket Anonymity Must End," Financial Times (May 7, 2026)

Subscribe to Rajiv's Substack newsletter, Imperfect Information

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Human interactions occur in a variety of contexts. When interactions are marked by conflict, misunderstanding, bias, or aggression, 2024-25 CASBS fellow Katy DeCelles illuminates the micro-sociological and social-psychological dynamics that contribute to the sub-optimal interaction outcomes, enabling the formulation of corrective solutions and better organizational design. DeCelles discusses a sampling of her innovative work in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Markoff (CASBS fellow, 2017-18).

Katherine (Katy) DeCelles: Univ. of Toronto faculty page | Google Scholar page | Poets & Quants profile | 

DeCelles work discussed & relevant resources:

"Scale Dichotomization Reduces Customer Racial Discrimination and Income Inequality," Nature 639, 19 February 2025

"Racial Bias Eliminated When Ratings Switch from Five Stars to Thumbs Up or Down," Nature, 19 February 2025

"How Gig Platforms Can Mitigate Racial Bias in Ratings," Harvard Business Review, 14 March 2025

"Different or Impartial? Actor-Observer Asymmetries in Expressing and Evaluating Sociopolitical Neutrality," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 154(11), 2025

"Understanding the Dynamics of Workplace Violence Can Improve Employee Health and Safety," Rotman School of Management, Univ. of Toronto, 2022

John Markoff: website |

John's latest book is Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand (Penguin Random House, 2022). His next book (forthcoming, 2027), will be published by MIT Press.

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

In his first visit since to CASBS since his 1996-97 fellowship, UC Berkeley economist David Card lifts the veil behind the innovative empirical work on the labor market effects of immigration, minimum wages, and education that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2021. In conversation with 2024-25 CASBS fellow Dylan Connor, Card also explores issues and questions involving the relationships among geography, social and labor mobility, and wealth inequalities.

DAVID CARD: UC Berkeley page | Berkeley economics page | Wikipedia page | Nobel Prize page | Google Scholar page | Berkeley Nobel Prize article | 

DYLAN CONNOR: ASU page | Google Scholar page | 

Work emerging from David Card's CASBS year

"Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics (2001)
"Would Financial Incentives for Leaving Welfare Lead Some People to Stay on Welfare Longer?" NBER Working Paper (1997)
"Adapting to Circumstances: The Evolution of Work, School, and Living Arrangements among North American Youth," in Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000)
"School Finance Reform, the Distribution of School Spending, and the Distribution of Student Test Scores," Journal of Public Economics (2002)
"The More Things Change: Immigrants and the Children of Immigrants in the 1940s, the 1970s, and the 1990s," in Issues in the Economics of Immigration (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000)

Other CASBS fellows mentioned in this episode

Orley Ashenfelter (1989-90)

Alan B. Krueger (1999-2000)

Roberto M. Fernandez (1996-97)

Robert D. Putnam (1974-75, 1988-89)

Min Zhou (2005-06)

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Philosophers Michael Brownstein (CASBS fellow 2019-20) and Dan Kelly (2018-19), two of the coauthors of "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Create Social Change," discuss their book's framing and key concepts with Damon Centola (2014-15), an expert in social network dynamics. The book offers a pragmatic guide for connecting individuals to their role as change agents, illuminating the social feedback processes through which structures, individuals, and social movements interact, unlocking the potential for systemic change.
The book is Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change (MIT Press, 2025)

Explore the book's website, containing related research, media, more about the authors, and an appendix that provides "A Deeper Dive into Individuals, Structures, and Other Key Concepts"
Michael Brownstein: CUNY Graduate Center webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |
Dan Kelly: Purdue Univ. webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |
Damon Centola: Penn webpage | Network Dynamics Group webpage | Wikipedia page | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |

Other works referenced in this episode:

Alex Madva, Daniel Kelly, Michael Brownstein, "Change the People or Change the Policy? On the Moral Education of Antiracists," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2023)
Michael Brownstein, Daniel Kelly, Alex Madva, "Individualism, Structuralism, and Climate Change," Environmental Communication (2021)
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956) (Wikipedia)

James S. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966), known as The Coleman Report (Wikipedia)

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979 [1984]) (Wikipedia)

Other 2018-19 CASBS fellows who Dan Kelly mentions in this episode: Christopher Bryan, Jennifer Freyd, Ying-hi Hong, Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Ruth Milkman

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Economist Paul Milgrom is celebrated for his Nobel Prize-winning work on auction theory and design. But he has published a wide range of other innovative, influential research throughout his career – including a book and articles emerging from his 1991-92 CASBS fellowship. Gani Aldashev (CASBS fellow, 2024-25) engages Milgrom on highlights of this often-collaborative or cross-disciplinary work on organizational behavior, the institutional roots of trust and cooperation, social choice for environmental policy, and more.
PAUL MILGROM: Stanford faculty page | Personal website | Nobel Prize page | Nobel bio | Wikipedia page| CASBS page |
Gani Aldashev: Georgetown faculty page | CASBS page | Google Scholar page |

PAUL MILGROM WORKS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE:
Economics, Organization, and Management (Prentice Hall, 1992), coauthored with John Roberts (CASBS fellow, 1991-92)
"Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (1991), coauthored with Bengt Holmstrom
"Complementarities and Fit Strategy, Structure, and Organizational Change in Manufacturing," Journal of Accounting and Economics (1995), coauthored with John Roberts
"Complementarities, Momentum, and the Evolution of Modern Manufacturing," The American Economic Review (1991), coauthored with Yingyi Qian, John Roberts
"Complementarities and Systems: Understanding Japanese Economic Organization," Estudios Economicos (1994), coauthored with John Roberts

"The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs," Economics & Politics (1990), coauthored with Douglass North (CASBS fellow, 1987-88) and Barry Weingast (CASBS fellow, 1993-94)
Learn about the Champagne Fairs on Wikipedia

"Coordination, Commitment and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild," Journal of Political Economy (1994), coauthored with Avner Greif (CASBS fellow, 1993-94), Barry Weingast

"Is Sympathy an Economic Value? Philosophy, Economics, and the Contingent Valuation Method," in Contingent Valuation: A Critical Assessment, J.A. Hausman, ed. (Elsevier, 1993)

"Kenneth Arrow's Last Theorem," Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design (2024)
Other works referenced in this episode:

Oliver Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting (Mcmillan, 1985). Much of this book was written at CASBS during Williamson's 1977-78 CASBS fellowship.

Works emerging from Milgrom's CASBS fellowships
Milgrom's collaborations with, intellectual interactions with, or responses to other Nobel Prize winners in this episode:
Oliver Williamson (CASBS fellow 1977-78, Nobel Prize 2009)
Bengt Holmstrom (Nobel Prize 2016)
Robert Wilson (CASBS fellow 1977-78, Nobel Prize 2020)
Ronald Coase (CASBS fellow 1958-59, Nobel Prize 1991)
Douglass North (CASBS fellow 1987-88, Nobel Prize 1993)
Kenneth Arrow (CASBS fellow 1956-57, Nobel Prize 1972)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |