VoxTalks Economics

• S8 Ep25: Growth and trust in government

  Does economic growth inspire us to trust our governments? A new paper finds a surprisingly strong and consistent relationship between trust and economic growth – not for this quarter, or this year, but over our lifetimes. Tim Besley of the London School of Economics tells Tim Phillips how we can measure trust in a government around the world, and the strong and consistent relationship between long-run growth and trust. 

  --------  

  25:38
• S8 Ep24: Do friendships change our political opinions?

  Recently, students all over the world have been demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza or in support of the policies of the Israeli government. At times, police have been required to keep the two sides apart. Protests, sit-ins and encampments are scenes familiar on many campuses. Sciences Po in Paris, is one of the locations where protests have made national news. But a decade ago, a natural experiment on the effects of friendship at Sciences Po showed that there is potential for students to bridge political gaps simply by getting to know each other better for a short time. Yves Zenou of Monash University, also a CEPR fellow, is one of the authors of a new discussion paper that describes the experiment and its results. We spoke to him about how friendship can close political gaps, and how to create dialogue on campus and in society. Download “Friendship Networks and Political Opinions” https://cepr.org/publications/dp20075

  --------  

  19:08
• S8 Ep23: What is geoeconomics?

  With the major geopolitical powers squaring up to each other, tariffs on trade and political turmoil, is it time for economics to focus more on the consequences for the world economy of great power rivalry? A new paper defines the emerging field of geoeconomics, reviews the existing research, and sets out an agenda to fill the gaps in what we know. Christoph Trebesch of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy & Cathrin Mohr of Bonn University talk to Tim Phillips about how economists can collaborate with other disciplines to find fresh insights in this under-researched discipline.  Download CEPR discussion paper 19856, Geoeconomics https://cepr.org/publications/dp19856

  --------  

  22:58
• 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

  --------  

  23:09
• 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/

  --------  

  23:45

Weitere Wissenschaft Podcasts

Trending Wissenschaft Podcasts

Über VoxTalks Economics