VoxTalks Economics

• S8 Ep22: Do superstar advisors create star students?

  Getting accepted to an elite PhD programme with a superstar advisor seems like “making it” if you want a research career in economics. But is it? How productive will those young, talented economists become? Half of elite economics PhDs from programmes at MIT, Harvard, Stanford and similar institutions publish next to nothing in the six years after they get their doctorate, and only 10% publish more than a paper or two. Josh Angrist of MIT & Marc Diederichs, University of Passau have studied what they call the economics PhD education production function at elite universities in the US. Tim Phillips asks them how, if these elite programmes are designed to create scholars who go on to publish their research consistently, can the institutions or their advisors do a better job of helping that to happen? Read about the research on VoxEU https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/prolific-phd-advisors-are-no-guarantee-graduate-student-research-success

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• S8 Ep21: A meaningful life

  What gives a life meaning? Is it about health, friends, family or something else? Do rich people have more meaningful lives than poor people? Do we find meaning in success or problems and failures too? During the Great Depression, the US Government Federal Writers’ Project dispatched a team of writers across the US with a simple brief: talk to people about their lives. The archive that they created, called American Life Histories, tells us what thousands of people across the US found meaningful in their lives. A new project uses artificial intelligence to discover what these documents reveal about the meaning of life. David Lagakos of Boston University, and Hans-Joachim Voth of the University of Zurich are two of the authors. They talk to Tim Phillips about what they discovered, and the message for those of us who seek meaning in our lives today.  Read the Discussion Paper https://cepr.org/publications/dp19885 American Life histories at the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/

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• S8 Ep20: Expelling the experts

  President Trump, aided by DOGE under Elon Musk, promised deep cuts to the US federal bureaucracy. In these cases, and many others in recent history, populist politicians complain about a bloated and unelected “administrative state” that they inherit from a previous regime. They say these public employees frustrate their ability to deliver on their promises. Others argue that a bureaucracy contains the experts that are needed to make policy function smoothly – and removing them will make government function less, not more, efficiently. So how do populists typically deal with their bureaucrats, and what are the consequences? An analysis of Italian local politics that was published recently might help us to understand what is happening in the US now, and what might happen next. Matia Vannoni of King’s College London was one of the authors. He talks to Tim Phillips about what happens when we expel the experts. Read Matia’s research on VoxEU (https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/expelling-experts-cost-populism-bureaucratic-expertise-and-government-performance) Photo: Gage Skidmore

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• S8 Ep19: Central banks as financial agents of the state

  Central banks play a crucial role in modern economies, managing money supply, setting interest rates, and ensuring financial stability. But their relationship with governments, particularly their role as financial agents of the state, creates potential risks that could threaten economic stability. Does the way central banks are structured and operate obscure the true fiscal health of the state, and pose risks for the wider economy? That’s what Willem Buiter – former Chief Economist at Citigroup, former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, among many other things – claims.  In conversation with Tim Phillips, he sets out six challenges that central banks may face in the future and explains what central bankers can do about them.  The discussion paper is here.

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• S8 Ep18: When our values clash at work

  Do you and your boss see the world in the same way and how does that affect your performance at work? You might not agree with your boss about everything. But if you and your boss don’t have the same outlook, does this mean you will be less productive? Alexia Delfino of Bocconi University measured both the values and the performance of employees at a global bank. She tells Tim Phillips whether shared values mean better outcomes – and what this means for diversity and team building.

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