InequaliTalks

Latest Episodes:

Episode 6: Does a Career in Science Pay? -- with Kadeem L. Noray Oct 14, 2020

Show notes

STEM classes, especially computer science and engineering, are increasingly popular on college campuses, often because they are seen as offering better employment prospects and higher earnings. What happens to this early STEM pay premium in the long run? Kadeem Noray from Harvard talks about his research with David J. Deming on how changing job skills affect the career dynamics of people majoring in STEM.

Recommendations:

Breaking Bad https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/
The Secret of our Success by Joseph Heinrich https://secretofoursuccess.fas.harvard.edu/

Paper:

"Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers" by David J. Deming & Kadeem Noray The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 135, Issue 4, November 2020, Pages 1965–2005, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa021
Kadeem's blog https://kadeemnoray.com/blog/

Episode 5: Global Land Inequality -- with Yajna Govind Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Despite significant process of industrialization in developping countries across the world, agricultural land is still a vital resource for three out of four of the poorest billion individuals in the world. How does land ownership inequality vary across countries and regions of the world? How different is the picture if we account for land area and value, or for the landless population? Yajna Govind gives a full picture of global land inequality.

Recommendations:

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/393199.Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London

Paper:

"Global Land Inequality" by Luis Bauluz, Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwid.world%2Fdocument%2Fglobal-land-inequality-world-inequality-lab-wp-2020-10%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNG8jp7GKmLqJKk8RABVzzunAi63Yw

Episode 4: Do Politicians Know about what Citizens Prefer? -- with Asad Liaqat Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

Do politicians know enough about voters to adequately represent them? Are they responsive to new information about their constituency? How does it affect the representation of marginalized groups?
Asad Liaqat presents the results of large experiment he conducted on politicians in Pakistan, and reveals large information asymmetries in politics.

Recommendations:

"Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" by Katherine Boo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11869272-behind-the-beautiful-forevers

Paper:

"No Representation without Information: Politician Responsiveness to Citizen Preferences" by Asad Liaqat https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/asadliaqat/files/jmp.pdf

Episode 3: The Most Unequal Region -- with Lydia Assouad Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Lydia Assouad revisits the "Arab Inequality puzzle" : survey estimates suggest that inequality in the Middle East is not particularly high. In reality, the Middle East is the most unequal region in the world, with both enormous inequality between countries and large inequality within countries.

Recommendations:

Comics "Palestine" by Joe Sacco https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/769712.Palestine
Movie "Capernaum" by Nadine Labaki https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8267604/

Paper:

"Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon 2005-2014" by Lydia Assouad https://wid.world/document/rethinking-lebanese-economic-miracle-extreme-concentration-income-wealth-lebanon-2005-2014-wid-world-working-paper-201713/

Episode 2: A Pandemic in a Globalized World -- with Alessandro Sforza Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

What would have been the economic impact of COVID-19 in a less integrated world? Is trade openness a good or a bad thing to mitigate the shock of a pandemic? How can we quantify the welfare effect of such a large disruption in production? Alessandro Sforza explains why the economic effects of a pandemic crucially depend on the extend to which countries are connected in global production networks.

Recommendations:

"The Reach of Rome: A Journey Through the Lands of the Ancient Empire, Following a Coin" by Alberto Angela https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/227125/the-reach-of-rome-by-alberto-angela-with-translation-by-gregory-conti/9780847841288

Paper:

"Globalization in the time of COVID-19" by Alessandro Sforza and Marina Steininger https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SeHWV20aIWdqpdwZSiVfm57BJrUqKy6Q/view

Episode 1: Why Does COVID-19 Affect Poor Households? -- with Michael Stepner Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S economy at an incredibly rapid pace. Michael Stepner presents his most recent work with Opportunity Insights. Combining anonymized data from private companies, the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker provides a real-time picture of how the economy is performing. How and where do people spend their money? Who are the most vulnerable workers? Where are located the most affected businesses? What is the impact of state-ordered reopenings, small business loans and stimulus checks on consumption?

Recommendations:

Podcast Threshold Season 1 https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/season01
"The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains", by Donna Feir, Rob Gillezeau & Maggie E.C. Jones https://www.minneapolisfed.org/~/media/files/community/indiancountry/resources-education/working-papers/cicd-wp-2019-01.pdf

Paper:

"How Did COVID-19 and Stabilization Policies Affect Spending and Employment? A New Real-Time Economic Tracker Based on Private Sector Data", by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner, and the Opportunity Insights Team https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tracker_paper.pdf
Opportunity Insights https://opportunityinsights.org

Episode 0: Introducing InequaliTalks Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

Inequality is one of the most pressing issues in the public conversation.
Economic research can help us find the tools to address it.
Here is a quick taste of what's to come every second Wednesday.
By Clémentine Van Effenterre

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