InequaliTalks

Latest Episodes:

Episode 26: What happens when big companies increase wages? -- with Ellora Derenoncourt Feb 16, 2022

Show notes

In recent years, decreasing federal minimum wage, low unionization rates and growing outsourcing trends have had some important effects on wage growth in the US low wage sector. As major firms throughout the world come under scrutiny for their failure to compensate their workers fairly, it is becoming increasingly necessary to better understand what motivates companies to mirror other larger firms’ wage changes. In this episode, Ellora Derenoncourt explains that when it comes to wage changes, just a few large employers in the labor market can have substantial ripple effects. Using the examples of firms like Amazon, Walmart and Target, she looks at why some companies feel compelled to follow in the footsteps of larger actors.

Working Paper:
“Spillover effects from voluntary employer minimum wages”, with Clemens Noelke, David Weil & Bledi Taska
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3793677

Recommendation:
“On the Clock: What Low Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane” (2019), by Emily Guendelsberger
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779084-on-the-clock

Episode 25: Carbon Tax Aversion -- with Thomas Douenne Jan 26, 2022

Show notes

How do beliefs shape and determine our attitudes towards policies? In this episode, Thomas Douenne looks at carbon taxation in the context of the Yellow Vest Movement, and how French people rejected a tax & dividend policy which they assumed would negatively impact their purchasing power.

Working Paper:
“Yellow Vests, Pessimistic Beliefs and Carbon Tax Aversion”, with Adrien Fabre
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20200092&&from=f

Recommendation:
“The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” (2020) by Michael J. Sandel
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50364458-the-tyranny-of-merit

Episode 24: Housing and Racial Discrimination -- with Aradhya Sood Jan 12, 2022

Show notes

What are racial covenants? How do they target specific ethnic and religious minorities? And how do they affect present-day economic outcomes? In this episode, Aradhya Sood tells us about her research on the prevalence of racially-restrictive covenants during the early-to-mid 20th century, and how these contracts continue to impact house prices and promote racial segregation today.

Working Paper:
Long Shadow of Racial Discrimination: Evidence from Housing Covenants, with William Speagle and Kevin Ehrman-Solberg
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J8KdEYskg4l2WvBTOESTogftChaYr8yo/view

Recommendation:
Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities, Jessica Trounstine (2019)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/segregation-by-design/9CEF629688C0C684EDC387407F5878F2

Episode 23: Outsourcing and Inequality -- with Adrien Bilal Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

In recent decades, firms' decision to rely on contract labor over "in-house" workers has become increasingly prevalent. In this episode, Adrien Bilal tells us about his research on labor outsourcing and inequality in France. He explains that while domestic outsourcing may increase aggregate productivity, it nonetheless leads to oursourced workers suffering important wage losses.

Paper:
“Outsourcing,
Inequality and Aggregate Output”, with H. Lhuillier (2021)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hqW5FFkGqqdolZdHti4QIvTm6fLdqZvB/view

Recommendation:
Les Misérables, Ladj Ly (2019), with Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti and Djebril Zonga
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10199590/

Episode 22: Affirmative action in Brazil -- with Ana Paula Melo Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

What is affirmative action? How can it increase the representation of under-privileged groups in a given field? And how might it play out in the higher education sector? In this episode, Ana Paula Melo talks to us about her research on the impact of affirmative action policies on the access to college in Brazil. She tells us about the benefits and shortcomings of this policy, and what is still missing in the existing literature on the topic.

Working Paper:
Affirmative action and demand for schooling: evidence from nation-wide policies, with Ursula Mello

Recommendation:
"Transcendent Kingdom" (2020) by Yaa Gyasi
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48570454-transcendent-kingdom

Episode 21: Systemic Discrimination -- with Evan K. Rose Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

Evan K. Rose talks to us about his research on the relationship between human capital, company behavior and discrimination. Looking at the hiring procedures of over a hundred Fortune 500 firms across the US, Rose found that there were significant penalties for applicants belonging to gender and/or racial minorities. In this episode, Rose discusses the policy implications of this phenomenon, and the need for change in both institutional and internal practices.

Paper:
“Systemic Discrimination among Large U.S. Employers” by Patrick M. Kline, Evan K. Rose and Christopher R. Walters (2021)
https://eml.berkeley.edu//~crwalters/papers/randres.pdf

Recommendation:
“The Anatomy of Racial Inequality” (2003) by Glenn C. Loury
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/330838.The_Anatomy_of_Racial_Inequality?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=FRGe9JFpvD&rank=1

Episode 20: The Declining Worker Power Hypothesis -- with Anna Stansbury Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

Why has wage inequality increased in the past 40 years in the United States? Why has corporate valuation skyrocketed? In this episode, Anna Stansbury presents her work with Larry Summers
on how declining worker power better explains these recent trends in the American economy and what that means for inequality.

Paper: “The Declining Worker Power Hypothesis” by Anna Stansbury and Lawrence Summers
https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/declining-worker-power-and-american-economic-performance/

Recommendation:
“Working” by Studs Terkel
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59649.Working

Episode 19: What We Teach about Race and Gender -- with Anjali Adukia Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

Books shape how children learn about society and the world. Analyzing over 1,100 award-winning children’s books, Anjali Adukia talks about what artificial intelligence (AI) tools can tell us about how race and gender are depicted to children.

Paper:
“What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children’s Books” (by A. Adukia, A. Eble, E. Harrison, H.B. Runesha, T. Szasz)
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29123/w29123.pdf

Recommendation:
"Salt" by Nayyirah Waheed
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18585282-salt

Episode 18: State Capacity, Taxation and Development -- with Augustin Bergeron Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

Governments in the world’s poorest countries face important revenue constraints. The ability to collect taxes directly affects the quality of public services and infrastructures, and is thought to undermine economic growth. Augustin Bergeron walks us through 3 experiments he conducted in D.R. Congo to investigate how the architecture of tax collection affects a state's fiscal capacity: who collects taxes, how much you can collect, and how you collect them.

Papers:

"Local Elites as State Capacity: How City Chiefs Use Local Information to Increase Tax Compliance in the D.R. Congo" by Pablo Balan, Augustin Bergeron, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7dv4jpgv08noa9/central_v_local_paper_20210810.pdf?dl=0
"The State Capacity Ceiling on Tax Rates: Evidence from Randomized Tax Abatements in the DRC" by Augustin Bergeron, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftvzzpbby6yiaft/state_capacity_ceiling_taxrates_20210701.pdf?dl=0 -"Optimal Assignment of Bureaucrats: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Tax Collectors in the DRC" by Augustin Bergeron, Pedro Bessone, John Kabeya Kabeya, Gabriel Tourek, and Jonathan Weigel https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lf50fcw68sru0s/optimal_assignment_bureaucrats_20210630.pdf?dl=0

Recommendations:

"Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages" by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691199542/rebellion-rascals-and-revenue
"King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961621-king-leopold-s-ghost

Episode 17: Obesity and Wealth -- with Elisa Macchi Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

Can obesity signal wealth? In this episode, Elisa talks about the experiment she conducted in Uganda, in which she demonstrates that obese people are perceived as rich and that being obese facilitates access to credit.

Paper:
"Worth your weight? Experimental evidence on the benefits of obesity in low-income countries" by Elisa Macchi
https://elisamacchi.github.io/publication/job-market-paper/

Recommendation:
"The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone" by Olivia Laing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667449-the-lonely-city

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