The Pie: An Economics Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Faster Food: Why Restaurant Productivity Finally Surged Nov 10, 2026

Show notes

For three decades, the number of meals a U.S. restaurant worker served per shift barely changed. Then, after a brief drop during the COVID shutdowns, productivity jumped about 15 percent and has remained elevated. In this episode, Chad Syverson, Chicago Booth professor and deputy director of BFI, describes research using anonymized phone location and spending data to figure out how restaurants suddenly became more productive.

Do Age Verification Laws Work? Evidence from Adult Websites Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Since 2023, 25 states have passed laws requiring adult websites to verify visitors' ages. Meanwhile, total time spent on these sites has fallen by only about 10%. In this episode, UChicago economist Matthew Brown discusses new research that uses browsing data to trace where that traffic went, with implications for with implications for how policymakers regulate the internet more broadly.

The Everywhere Millionaire: Who's Really Rich in America Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Roughly 3 million Americans own private businesses and have a net worth of at least $5 million. Together they hold more than $50 trillion, about 13 times the wealth of the entire Forbes 400. In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Eric Zwick discusses The Everywhere Millionaire, his new book with Owen Zidar, which draws on a decade of tax data to characterize this class of car dealers, dentists, and beer distributors in towns across the country.

Why Your Raise Didn't Keep Up with Inflation Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

By 2024, inflation was falling and unemployment was low, yet consumer confidence had sunk to levels last seen during the Great Recession. In this episode, Erik Hurst of Chicago Booth and his co-author Christina Patterson draw on payroll records for roughly 16 million workers to show how wages fell behind prices during the recent inflationary period and haven't caught back up.

But the Cool Kids are Still Online: Behind Australia's Failed Social Media Ban Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Last December, Australia banned social media for anyone under 16. Four months later, only one in four 14- and 15-year-olds were complying, a share that has since fallen further. In this episode of The Pie, Leonardo Bursztyn, the Saieh Family Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and co-director of BFI's Political Economics Initiative, discusses why the ban hasn't worked, and what a successful one might entail.

Cut Off: How US Sanctions are Reshaping the Global Payment System Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

US sanctions on Russian banks have complex spillovers for the importers and exporters who transact in dollars. On this episode of The Pie, Brent Neiman, the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, returns to discuss recent research tracing how those sanctions ripple through the global payments network, and whether they are pushing heavily sanctioned economies away from the dollar and toward China's yuan.

Scoop and Run: How Should Gunshot Victims Get to the Hospital? Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

When a police officer is shot, is it safer to wait for an ambulance or to be driven straight to the hospital in a squad car? In this episode of The Pie, Prachi Sanghavi, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago and co-director of the Health Policy Data Lab, discusses new research tracing how shooting victims across 18 U.S. cities reach the hospital, and what it reveals about a decades-old debate over pre-hospital care.

Talking to Strangers: The Economics of Social Connection Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

New research shows that people are strikingly bad at predicting how good it feels to connect with a stranger. In this episode of The Pie, Nick Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and author of A Little More Social, discusses what more than 120 experiments reveal about why we avoid reaching out to others, and what that avoidance may be costing us.

Passing the Pop Quiz: How Nursing Homes Predict Inspections, and What It Costs Patients Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

In the United States, regulators inspect nursing homes to ensure compliance with quality, safety, and other standards. While these inspections are not technically announced, they are easy for nursing home staff to predict because they usually occur annually. In this episode of The Pie, Maggie Shi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how this predictability affects nursing homes' effort levels, and, in turn, resident health.

AI and Early Childhood Development: The Importance of Human Interaction Jul 07, 2026

Show notes

At a time when forty percent of American two-year-olds have their own tablet, a new generation of AI toys and chatbots is being marketed as a better alternative to screens. On this episode, Dana Suskind, pediatric cochlear implant surgeon, co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health, and author of the new book Human Raised, explains the importance of human interaction for children's brain development.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Pie: An Economics Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected