Economists are always talking about The Pie – how it grows and shrinks, how it’s sliced, and who gets the biggest shares. Join host Tess Vigeland as she talks with leading economists from the University of Chicago about their cutting-edge research and key events of the day. Hear how the economic pie is at the heart of issues like the aftermath of a global pandemic, jobs, energy policy, and more.
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Becker Friedman Institute At UChicago Podcasts
The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire UChicago economics community to uncover new ways of thinking about the field. Featuring conversations and lectures from premier BFI events, this podcast explores the latest economic insights and trends from leading voices in policy, business, the media, and academia, revealing how rigorous thinking shapes our understanding of the world.
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Green Bubble Stigma: Texting, Status, and Market Power
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26:31
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A text bubble might seem trivial, until it shapes market dynamics, personal identity, and federal lawsuits. In this episode, UChicago economist Leo Bursztyn discusses how Apple’s green bubble design creates a powerful lock-in effect that reinforces Apple’s market dominance.By Becker Friedman Institute at UChicago
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How is AI impacting the economy today? What might this mean for tomorrow? This episode brings you inside a discussion hosted at BFI in April. Moderated by Caroline Grossman, Executive Director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, the conversation features: Anders Humlum, Assistant Professor of Economics, Chicago Booth; Sanjog Misra,…
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Economist Brent Neiman recently returned to UChicago from his position as Deputy Undersecretary for International Finance at The US Treasury, only to find his research being used (and misused) in the Trump administration’s sweeping new tariff policy. In this episode, Neiman walks us through what the original study actually showed, how it got misint…
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Between a Chip and a Hard Place: The Economics of Security and Sovereignty in Taiwan
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28:42
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What does Taiwan’s precarious position reveal about global power, economic leverage, and the unraveling of diplomatic norms? In this episode, economist Chang-Tai Hsieh returns to unpack Taiwan’s tangled political history, its deep economic entanglement with China, and the global stakes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). From fear…
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An Extra Slice of the Pie: Choosing with Uncertainty
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48:40
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How can policymakers make choices when confronted with uncertainty? What happens when the public loses confidence in scientific authority? Are scientists, including economists, overconfident? Nobel Laureate and UChicago economist Lars Hansen, a leading authority on uncertainty in economic decision-making, tackles these and related questions in this…
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Tariffs, Trust, and the Twilight of Norms: U.S.–China Relations in the Trump Era
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27:08
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What happens when trust in longstanding economic norms starts to break down? In this episode, economist Chang-Tai Hsieh explores the geopolitical and economic consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign policy, particularly its approach to China. From China’s post-COVID recovery stumbles to a global flood of low-cost EVs, Hsieh unpacks the d…
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War Economies: How Ukraine and Russia Are Adapting in Year Three
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More than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war continues to reshape not only geopolitical alliances but also the economies of both countries. In this episode of The Pie, host Tess Vigeland is joined by Konstantin Sonin, John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Po…
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Crypto’s Fatal Flaw: Trust, Scale, and the Economics of Blockchain
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46:00
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Crypto’s most groundbreaking innovation, permissionless consensus, may also be its greatest vulnerability. In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Eric Budish breaks down the core mechanics of blockchain trust, the staggering energy costs behind mining, and why these systems are fundamentally exposed to majority attacks. Tune in for a deep dive in…
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Will They or Won't They? A Former Fed Official on This Week’s Interest Rate Decision
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This week, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meets to decide whether to adjust interest rates or keep them steady. What should we expect amid today's economic and political uncertainty? On this episode of The Pie, Randy Kroszner, former Federal Reserve Governor and Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business, d…
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Many of us react to the term “performance review” with a shudder. It’s that awkward periodic conversation in which we have to hear feedback, share our assessments of each other, and, occasionally, clash with our colleagues. But do performance reviews have to be like that? We hear from Chicago Booth's Stacey Kole. Does she think that performance rev…
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The Future of U.S. Energy Policy Under Trump
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President Donald Trump has declared a “national energy emergency,” expanding executive powers to shape U.S. energy policy in his second term. What could this mean for the future of American energy? In this episode of The Pie, Ryan Kellogg, the Ralph and Mary Otis Isham Professor and Deputy Dean for Academic Programs at the Harris School of Public P…
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The Economics of Health Insurance: Denials, Pre-Authorizations, and Cost Control
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The debate over health insurance denials intensified last year after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. In this episode of The Pie, host Tess Vigeland unpacks the economic forces shaping the US healthcare system with economists from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Josh Gottlieb examines the financial burden of …
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Powering Innovation: How Government Subsidies Accelerate Electric Vehicle Breakthroughs
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26:08
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The automotive industry is at the forefront of a global shift toward sustainability, with nations setting ambitious electric vehicle (EV) adoption targets. But how do government subsidies and industrial policies shape the pace of EV innovation? Hyuk-soo Kwon, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, explores the impact of these po…
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Five Years Later: How COVID-19 Reshaped Our Economy and Lives
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It’s been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the world. In this episode of The Pie, Matt Notowidigdo, Professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business, explores the pandemic’s lasting effects on education, work, and daily life. Join us as we dive into the key economic shifts brought on by COVID-19 and discuss how society can better…
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Unlocking Higher Education: Undergraduate Re-Enrollment and Graduate Student Lending
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36:15
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Why do so many students leave college before completing their degree, and how can we help them return? Lesley Turner, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, discusses results from a mentoring experiment aimed at boosting undergraduate re-enrollment. Then, she examines the ripple effects of federal policies …
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Americans attend church less often than they claim. Recessions can improve our health. Pesticides pose hidden dangers. And perceptions of monetary policy shape our reality. In this special year-end episode of The Pie, we dive into some of the most compelling insights and conversations from the past 12 months.…
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Balancing Purse and Peace: Tax Collection, Public Goods, and Protests
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Many low-income countries face a dilemma: keep taxes low and remain unable to build state capacity, or raise taxes and risk political unrest. In this episode of The Pie, Ben Krause, Executive Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, shares insights from an experiment in Haiti demonstrating how the provision of public goods can boost…
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Pricing Pollution: Measuring Carbon Externalities for US Corporations
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23:44
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A company’s value includes not just the goods and services it provides but also the societal costs it imposes. In this episode of The Pie, Lubos Pastor, Charles P. McQuaid Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, explores how to integrate the costs of corporate greenhouse gas emissions into traditional measures of corporate perf…
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Deadly Prescriptions: What Happens When Doctors Compete for Patients
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When some US states allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances without physician oversight, a serious unintended consequence took hold: Doctors found themselves competing with those nurses for patients. Molly Schnell, BFI Saieh Family Fellow and assistant professor at Northwestern University, along with her colleagues—Janet Curr…
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An Extra Slice of the Pie, with James Robinson: History, Politics, and the Road to an Economics Nobel
1:34:02
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James Robinson, a University Professor with appointments in both UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy as well as the Political Science Department in the Division of Social Sciences, is the university’s latest faculty member to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. On this episode of “An Extra Slice of The Pie,” Robinson joins Ben …
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Economics Meets Ecology: The Huge Costs of Ecosystem Declines
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24:06
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Bats are considered a natural pesticide. When they began to die out due to an invasive fungus, farmers turned to chemicals to control pests. The result, as Eyal Frank of the Harris school of Public Policy describes on this episode of The Pie, was skyrocketing infant deaths. Tune in to learn more about the vast ramifications of ecosystem disruptions…
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How Do Buyouts Impact Hospital Performance? Evaluating the Role of Private Equity in Healthcare
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Private equity investors made some $200 billion worth of healthcare acquisitions in 2021, and $1 trillion worth in the 10 years leading up to 2023. In this episode of The Pie, Maggie Shi, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how private equity impacts hospitals along multiple dimensions, including patient volumes, revenues, em…
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What Can the North Dakota Railroad War of 1905 Tell Us About Regulating Modern Monopolies?
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When the Soo Line threatened to expand into the Great Northern Railway’s territory in 1905, the two companies entered a fierce competition for marketshare in which the they rapidly constructed nearly 500 miles of rail tracks and over 50 new towns. In this episode of The Pie, Chad Syverson, the George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Econo…
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Understanding the Fed: How Perception Drives Market Reactions
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The Federal Reserve responded to COVID-era inflation with the fastest increase in the federal funds rate in 40 years. Importantly, the effectiveness of their response depends on how the public perceived it. In this episode of The Pie, Carolin Pflueger, Associate Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, covers her recent talk to the Federal …
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Promises Delivered? The Economic Effects of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
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24:55
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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a landmark piece of tax legislation from the first year of the Trump administration, overhauled the tax code for both individuals and businesses. In this episode of The Pie, Eric Zwick, Professor of Economics and Finance at the UChicago's Booth School of Business, discusses how the overhaul affected the economy, i…
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