InequaliTalks

Latest Episodes:

Episode 16: Keeping up with the Khans -- with Eve Colson-Sihra Jul 21, 2021

Show notes

Does inequality affect our perception of necessity and luxury? Does it change our preferences for certain goods? And if yes, what are the impact in terms of malnutruition? Eve Colson-Sihra talks about the research she conducted with Clément Bellet on the impact of exposure to inequality on the perceived needs of the poor in India.

Paper:
"Does Inequality Affect the Perception of Needs?" by Clément Bellet and Eve Colson-Sihra
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XfOvB3_k2IZHt1NowTFcKFwe4meqb6gg/view

Recommendations:

"The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures" by Jean Baudrillard https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37328.The_Consumer_Society
"The Theory of the Leisure Class" by Thorstein Veblen https://www.routledge.com/The-Theory-of-the-Leisure-Class/Veblen/p/book/9781560005629

Episode 15: Race, Place, Health -- with Diane Alexander Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. Diane Alexander talks about the research she conducted with Janet Currie on the impact of children's neighborhoods on the racial gap in respiratory diseases such as asthma.

Paper:
"Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma" by Diane Alexander and Janet Currie
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629616303897

Recommendation:

Habitat for Humanity https://habitat.ca/
Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon Ho https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/

Episode 14: Top Immigrants -- with Felix Koenig Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

Does immigration import inequality? Felix Koenig talks about his recent research on the contribution of migrants to the rise in UK top incomes, showing that immigrants make up a much larger proportion of the top of the income range than of the bottom.

Paper:
“Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1%” by Arun Advani, Felix Koenig, Lorenzo Pessina, Andrew Summers.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp13731.pdf

Recommendations:

"A Star is Born" by Bradley Cooper https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/
"Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook" by Yotam Ottolenghi https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39797678-ottolenghi-simple

Episode 13: Hurricanes and the City -- with Rhiannon Jerch Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Local governments are essential providers of public goods and services utilized by Americans every day. Extreme weather events can threaten the stability of local revenue sources and the ability of municipalities to provide essential goods and services. Rhiannon Jerch talks about her research with Matthew E. Kahn & Gary Lin in which they study what happens to local public finances in the aftermath of hurricanes in the United States.

Paper:
"Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks" by Rhiannon Jerch, Matthew E. Kahn & Gary C. Lin
https://rhiannonjerch.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/jerch_kahn_lin_abstract_27oct.pdf

Recommendation:
"Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" (2000) by Erik Larson
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239186.Isaac_s_Storm

Episode 12: Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice -- with Felix Owusu Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

People of color are drastically overrepresented in Massachusetts state prisons. What happens at different stages of the criminal system, from charging and bail to adjudication and sentencing?
Felix Owusu presents the work he conducted with The Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School to explore the factors that lead to persistent racial disparities in the Massachusetts criminal system.

Paper:
"Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal System" by Elizabeth Tsai Bishop, Brook Hopkins, Chijindu Obiofuma & Felix Owusu
https://hls.harvard.edu/content/uploads/2020/11/Massachusetts-Racial-Disparity-Report-FINAL.pdf

Recommendation:
"A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor" by Alexes Harris
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28255222-a-pound-of-flesh

Episode 11: Can We Do Something about Tax Evasion? -- with Juliana Londoño-Vélez Jan 20, 2021

Show notes

Progressive wealth taxes may be difficult to enforce if wealthy individuals underreport their wealth, but disclosure incentives and greater enforcement can improve tax collection.
Juliana Londoño-Vélez presents her work with Javier Avila-Mahecha which uses rich administrative data from Colombia and leverages a government-designed program for voluntary disclosures of hidden wealth, as well as the threat of detection triggered by the Panama Papers leak.

Paper:
"Enforcing Wealth Taxes in the Developing World: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Colombia" by Juliana Londoño-Vélez & Javier Ávila-Mahecha
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aeri.20200319&from=f

Recommendation

"Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems" (2019) by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51014619-good-economics-for-hard-times
"Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research" (2020) by Miguel Urquiola https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674244238

Episode 10: Season 1 Final Episode -- with Thomas Piketty Dec 09, 2020

Show notes

An (almost) unedited conversation with Thomas Piketty about his last book "Capital and Ideology" (2019). We talked about private property, slavery, colonialism, Haiti and arts.

Book:
"Capital and Ideology" by Thomas Piketty
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980822

Recommendation:

"La voluntad y la fortuna" (2008) by Carlos Fuentes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50254105-voluntad-y-la-fortuna-by-fuentes
"Snowpiercer" (2013) by Bong Joon Ho https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/

Episode 9: Minimum Wage and Racial Inequality -- with Claire Montialoux Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

The earnings difference between white and Black workers fell dramatically in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Claire Montialoux, in a paper with Ellora Derenoncourt, shows that the expansion of the minimum wage played a critical role in this decline.

Recommendation:
"The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America" by Richard Rothstein
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32191706-the-color-of-law

Paper:
"Minimum Wages and Racial Inequality" by Ellora Derenoncourt and Claire Montialoux
https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjaa031/5905427?searchresult=1

Episode 8: Are Female Surgeons Discriminated? -- with Heather Sarsons Nov 11, 2020

Show notes

Does a person's gender influence the way we interpret information about his or her ability? Heather Sarsons tests this hypothesis in a unique setting using Medicare data on referrals from physicians to surgical specialists. She finds that the referring physicians view their patients' surgical outcomes differently depending on whether the surgeon is a man or a woman.

Recommendations:

"Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School" by Shamus Rahman Khan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8178541-privilege
"The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students" by Anthony Abraham Jack https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976894

Paper:
"Interpreting Signals in the Labor Market: Evidence from Medical Referrals" by Heather Sarsons
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12LI5b4Xg7DlNWt-ml2qw-PaMHlihdl0V/view

Episode 7: Wealth Inequality and Housing -- with Clara Martínez-Toledano Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

Housing is the main asset in most individual portfolios. The recent rise in private wealth with respect to national income has been mainly driven by capital gains on housing. How do house price cycles affect wealth inequality? Clara Martínez-Toledano explores the dynamics of wealth accumulation over forty years in Spain.

Recommendations: