The Gary Becker Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics advances inquiry that illuminates our choices, our economy, our society, and our future.
Becker Friedman Institute, The University of Chicago
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Economic growth depends critically on access to reliable energy. However in much of the world, access to energy remains low and supply is often unreliable. At the same time, the world’s energy choices are leading to levels of pollution that are substantially shortening people’s lives and causing climate change. The energy and growth challenge requires identifying solutions to these problems of access to inexpensive and reliable energy, while limiting environmental damage and guarding against disruptive climate change. In this Friedman Forum talk, Michael Greenstone explores key energy trends and outlines both the market and technology forces at play to meet this challenge.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Delivering the first Friedman Forum of the 2015–16 academic year, Hugo F. Sonnenschein lectured University of Chicago undergraduates on John Nash’s work on game theory, which included theories of bargaining.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Delivering the first Friedman Forum of the 2015–16 academic year, Hugo F. Sonnenschein lectured University of Chicago undergraduates on John Nash’s work on game theory, which included theories of bargaining.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. To combat a growing obesity problem, Mexico imposed a nationwide tax on drinks with added sugar, popularly referred to as a “soda tax,” effective January 2014. Jeffrey Grogger, the Irving Harris Professor in Urban Policy at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, analyzes data on taxed and untaxed products collected as part of Mexico’s Consumer Price Index program to estimate how prices responded to the tax.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. To combat a growing obesity problem, Mexico imposed a nationwide tax on drinks with added sugar, popularly referred to as a “soda tax,” effective January 2014. Jeffrey Grogger, the Irving Harris Professor in Urban Policy at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, analyzes data on taxed and untaxed products collected as part of Mexico’s Consumer Price Index program to estimate how prices responded to the tax.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. This event brought together a panel of three leading economists—Thomas Piketty, Kevin Murphy, and Steven Durlauf—to discuss the sources of the rise in inequality in advanced industrialized countries over the past 40 years, the problems it poses, and effective responses. Nobel laureate James Heckman moderated the panel and guided the discussion. This event was cosponsored by the Becker Friedman Institute, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, and the Center for the Economics of Human Development.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. This event brought together a panel of three leading economists—Thomas Piketty, Kevin Murphy, and Steven Durlauf—to discuss the sources of the rise in inequality in advanced industrialized countries over the past 40 years, the problems it poses, and effective responses. Nobel laureate James Heckman moderated the panel and guided the discussion. This event was cosponsored by the Becker Friedman Institute, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, and the Center for the Economics of Human Development.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. How has monetary policy helped in nurturing a sluggish recovery? What expectations should the public have for the role of monetary policy in the future? How do Federal Reserve decision-makers confront or cope with uncertainty when designing and implementing monetary policy? Charles Plosser, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and University of Chicago alumnus, explores these questions and offers insights in a candid discussion with Lars Peter Hansen, Becker Friedman Institute director at the University of Chicago and 2013 Nobel laureate.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. How has monetary policy helped in nurturing a sluggish recovery? What expectations should the public have for the role of monetary policy in the future? How do Federal Reserve decision-makers confront or cope with uncertainty when designing and implementing monetary policy? Charles Plosser, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and University of Chicago alumnus, explores these questions and offers insights in a candid discussion with Lars Peter Hansen, Becker Friedman Institute director at the University of Chicago and 2013 Nobel laureate.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A panel of eminent members and an affiliate member of the Department of Economics faculty—each a part of University of Chicago economic history himself—shares experiences, memories, influences, and insider views of the unique approach and environment that gave rise to Chicago economics and its world-changing ideas. This panel discussion is part of “The Legacy of Chicago Economics,” an academic conference about the first generation of Chicago economists.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A panel of eminent members and an affiliate member of the Department of Economics faculty—each a part of University of Chicago economic history himself—shares experiences, memories, influences, and insider views of the unique approach and environment that gave rise to Chicago economics and its world-changing ideas. This panel discussion is part of “The Legacy of Chicago Economics,” an academic conference about the first generation of Chicago economists.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Donald Elliott proposed a Chevron-style deference framework for administrative severability clauses. Under this framework, after a reviewing court has set aside a challenged regulatory provision, the court should defer to a promulgating agency’s opinion on severability as expressed through a severability clause, unless the remainder of the rule itself would suffer from legal defects resulting from the court’s invalidation of the challenged provisions. This framework would better promote the overarching goals of administrative law than do current judicial doctrine and agency practice.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. In this presentation, Jennifer Nou presented several examples of how federal agencies process information in the face of uncertain conditions. She then described the organizational structures that each agency used to help keep key decision makers informed.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Traditionally the problem of regulation has been an information asymmetry: Firms know more about the risks they generate and the costs of mitigating them than do regulators, and they have incentives to make strategic use of their superior information to frustrate costly supervision. The task of the regulator is to elicit from firms the information necessary to establish public regarding—but economically feasible—standards and rules, but not at the price of “capture” or ceding control of regulation to its addressee. Under uncertainty, however, neither the regulator nor the regulated firms know what needs to be done. In this presentation, Charles Sabel looked closely at developments in the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry and its regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to better understand the co-evolution of vertically disintegrated, industry and new forms of regulation based on incident reporting.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Yair Listokin examined two alternative designs for hierarchical institutions—“bounded” and “unbounded”—and applied these insights to government appropriations, environmental law, and administrative law.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Traditionally the problem of regulation has been an information asymmetry: Firms know more about the risks they generate and the costs of mitigating them than do regulators, and they have incentives to make strategic use of their superior information to frustrate costly supervision. The task of the regulator is to elicit from firms the information necessary to establish public regarding—but economically feasible—standards and rules, but not at the price of “capture” or ceding control of regulation to its addressee. Under uncertainty, however, neither the regulator nor the regulated firms know what needs to be done. In this presentation, Charles Sabel looked closely at developments in the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry and its regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to better understand the co-evolution of vertically disintegrated, industry and new forms of regulation based on incident reporting.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Yair Listokin examined two alternative designs for hierarchical institutions—“bounded” and “unbounded”—and applied these insights to government appropriations, environmental law, and administrative law.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Donald Elliott proposed a Chevron-style deference framework for administrative severability clauses. Under this framework, after a reviewing court has set aside a challenged regulatory provision, the court should defer to a promulgating agency’s opinion on severability as expressed through a severability clause, unless the remainder of the rule itself would suffer from legal defects resulting from the court’s invalidation of the challenged provisions. This framework would better promote the overarching goals of administrative law than do current judicial doctrine and agency practice.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. In this presentation, Jennifer Nou presented several examples of how federal agencies process information in the face of uncertain conditions. She then described the organizational structures that each agency used to help keep key decision makers informed.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Cost-benefit analysis requires the decision maker to estimate both the benefits and the costs of a regulation in monetary terms. However, in many cases, regulators refuse to report a monetized value for the benefits of a rule that they issue. In this presentation, Eric Posner asks: If they are not doing cost-benefit analysis, what are these agencies actually doing?
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Cost-benefit analysis requires the decision maker to estimate both the benefits and the costs of a regulation in monetary terms. However, in many cases, regulators refuse to report a monetized value for the benefits of a rule that they issue. In this presentation, Eric Posner asks: If they are not doing cost-benefit analysis, what are these agencies actually doing?
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Robert Topel tackled the topic of income inequality in a Becker Brown Bag lecture to Chicago Booth MBA students, breaking down his research findings that interrogate the correlation between technology advancements, human capital investment, and economic growth.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Robert Topel tackled the topic of income inequality in a Becker Brown Bag lecture to Chicago Booth MBA students, breaking down his research findings that interrogate the correlation between technology advancements, human capital investment, and economic growth.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Jean Tirole, the 2014 recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, spoke to students about how breakthroughs in industrial organization, game theory, and information economics led him to apply economic tools to crafting more effective systems of regulation.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Jean Tirole, the 2014 recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, spoke to students about how breakthroughs in industrial organization, game theory, and information economics led him to apply economic tools to crafting more effective systems of regulation.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. During Egypt's Arab Spring, unprecedented popular mobilization and protests brought down Hosni Mubarak’s government and ushered in an era of competition among three groups: elites associated with Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), the military, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Street protests continued to play an important role during this power struggle. In a talk to MBA students, Tarek Hassan discussed his work arguing that these protests are associated with differential stock market returns for firms connected to the three groups; furthermore, he argues that activity on social media may have played an important role in mobilizing protesters, but did not have the same effect on markets that in-person protests did. According to his preferred interpretation, these events provide evidence that, under weak institutions, popular mobilization and protests have a role in moving and disrupting the marketplace. Hassan is associate professor of finance and economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. During Egypt's Arab Spring, unprecedented popular mobilization and protests brought down Hosni Mubarak’s government and ushered in an era of competition among three groups: elites associated with Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), the military, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Street protests continued to play an important role during this power struggle. In a talk to MBA students, Tarek Hassan discussed his work arguing that these protests are associated with differential stock market returns for firms connected to the three groups; furthermore, he argues that activity on social media may have played an important role in mobilizing protesters, but did not have the same effect on markets that in-person protests did. According to his preferred interpretation, these events provide evidence that, under weak institutions, popular mobilization and protests have a role in moving and disrupting the marketplace. Hassan is associate professor of finance and economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Using historical episodes - the South Sea bubble, the extraordinary rise of stock prices during the roaring twenties, the Internet bubble, and the recent credit bubble - José Scheinkman illustrated three stylized facts concerning asset price bubbles: that asset price bubbles coincide with increases in trading volume, that bubble deflation seems to correspond with increases in an asset’s supply, and that asset price bubbles often occur in times of financial or technological innovation.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. In this presentation, Andy B. Bernard examined what determines buyer-supplier connections and the consequences for firm performance. After reviewing facts about Japanese production work, the model of producers and domestic sourcing, and natural experiment testing predictions of model and effects of infrastructure, Bernard builds on the sourcing model of Antras et al (2014) and introduces a comparison of in-house production to the outsourcing margin and a continuum of locations.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Using historical episodes - the South Sea bubble, the extraordinary rise of stock prices during the roaring twenties, the Internet bubble, and the recent credit bubble - José Scheinkman illustrated three stylized facts concerning asset price bubbles: that asset price bubbles coincide with increases in trading volume, that bubble deflation seems to correspond with increases in an asset’s supply, and that asset price bubbles often occur in times of financial or technological innovation.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Samuel Kortum presented a general equilibrium model on product trade through random meetings, which generates predictions for imports, exports, and the share of labor in production at the firm level, as well as firm-to-firm trade and labor’s share of output at the aggregate level.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Pol Antràs discusses preliminary research on how global sourcing decisions impact firm performance, employment, and welfare. During his presentation, he solicits feedback from researchers on the proposal of a quantifiable multi-country sourcing model that provides estimates of country sourcing potential and fixed costs and studies the effects of shocks to global sourcing.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Mitsuru Igami discusses a novel pattern of offshoring and market structure in a high-tech industry–the production of hard drives–and proposes a simple oligopoly model to explain it.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. In this presentation, Andy B. Bernard examined what determines buyer-supplier connections and the consequences for firm performance. After reviewing facts about Japanese production work, the model of producers and domestic sourcing, and natural experiment testing predictions of model and effects of infrastructure, Bernard builds on the sourcing model of Antras et al (2014) and introduces a comparison of in-house production to the outsourcing margin and a continuum of locations.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Samuel Kortum presented a general equilibrium model on product trade through random meetings, which generates predictions for imports, exports, and the share of labor in production at the firm level, as well as firm-to-firm trade and labor’s share of output at the aggregate level.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Drawing on a new and unique collection of Mexican microdata, Ben Faber presents work in which he and his coauthors estimate the effect of foreign supermarket entry on household welfare and its underlying channels.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Using new panel data across twelve European countries from 1996-2007, John Van Reenen presented work examining the impact of Chinese import competition on broad measures of technical change, including patenting, IT and TFP.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Pol Antràs discusses preliminary research on how global sourcing decisions impact firm performance, employment, and welfare. During his presentation, he solicits feedback from researchers on the proposal of a quantifiable multi-country sourcing model that provides estimates of country sourcing potential and fixed costs and studies the effects of shocks to global sourcing.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Mitsuru Igami discusses a novel pattern of offshoring and market structure in a high-tech industry–the production of hard drives–and proposes a simple oligopoly model to explain it.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Ezra Oberfield presented a theory of innovation and diffusion of technologies to explore the role of international trade and foreign direct investment. This framework allows him to quantify the dynamic gains from trade in the short and long run.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Using new panel data across twelve European countries from 1996-2007, John Van Reenen presented work examining the impact of Chinese import competition on broad measures of technical change, including patenting, IT and TFP.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Ezra Oberfield presented a theory of innovation and diffusion of technologies to explore the role of international trade and foreign direct investment. This framework allows him to quantify the dynamic gains from trade in the short and long run.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Drawing on a new and unique collection of Mexican microdata, Ben Faber presents work in which he and his coauthors estimate the effect of foreign supermarket entry on household welfare and its underlying channels.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. How has monetary policy helped in nurturing a sluggish recovery? What expectations should the public have for the role of monetary policy in the future? How do Federal Reserve decision-makers confront or cope with uncertainty when designing and implementing monetary policy? President Charles Evans of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Lars Peter Hansen, 2013 Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, explored these questions in an insightful and open discussion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Consumer decision-making expert Ann McGill wanted to know: for what sort of person is a talking muffin more persuasive than an actual human spokesperson? Her findings suggest that it boils down whether or not we tend to trust other people. Videos referenced in lecture: PAM "Muffin" ad: https://youtu.be/LpR111OkvWU Cars.com "Super Bowl" ad: https://youtu.be/xVABCkrrfbM IKEA "Lamp" ad: https://youtu.be/dBqhIVyfsRg
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Consumer decision-making expert Ann McGill wanted to know: for what sort of person is a talking muffin more persuasive than an actual human spokesperson? Her findings suggest that it boils down whether or not we tend to trust other people. Videos referenced in lecture: PAM "Muffin" ad: https://youtu.be/LpR111OkvWU Cars.com "Super Bowl" ad: https://youtu.be/xVABCkrrfbM IKEA "Lamp" ad: https://youtu.be/dBqhIVyfsRg
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. How has monetary policy helped in nurturing a sluggish recovery? What expectations should the public have for the role of monetary policy in the future? How do Federal Reserve decision-makers confront or cope with uncertainty when designing and implementing monetary policy? President Charles Evans of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Lars Peter Hansen, 2013 Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, explored these questions in an insightful and open discussion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A panel of philosophers and economists discuss the interplay between normative ethics and welfare economics, and how the two disciplines can yield insight the ethics and norms dictating how we choose to act.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A panel of philosophers and economists discuss the interplay between normative ethics and welfare economics, and how the two disciplines can yield insight the ethics and norms dictating how we choose to act.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Sang Yoon Lee takes equality of opportunity definitions that have appeared in the philosophical literature on distributive justice, and applies them to a formal economic model which incorporates human capital investment and luck within and across generations. Richard Arneson discusses the duality of equality of opportunity being universally acclaimed, and yet thinly applied due to differing definitions over just what it constitutes.
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Sang Yoon Lee takes equality of opportunity definitions that have appeared in the philosophical literature on distributive justice, and applies them to a formal economic model which incorporates human capital investment and luck within and across generations. Richard Arneson discusses the duality of equality of opportunity being universally acclaimed, and yet thinly applied due to differing definitions over just what it constitutes.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
