Richmond Fed President, Tom Barkin, joins Steven Davis to consider what it takes for small towns to prosper, and why it matters for families and communities. They also discuss how policymakers and civic leaders can address concerns about the downsides of economic development. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Austan Goolsbee joins Steven Davis to consider “The Strange and Awful Path of Productivity in the U.S. Construction Sector.” Strange because construction productivity has stagnated for decades. Awful because it makes homes less affordable for American families. They probe the issue, drawing on Austan’s recent research with Chicago Booth Professor Chad Syverson. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Claudia Goldin joins Steven Davis to discuss the “The Downside of Fertility,” her essay presented at the 2025 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. She offers an explanation for why fertility rates fell around the world as women gained greater agency in multiple domains (marriage, reproduction, education, labor markets). When women gain agency, Goldin argues that a “mismatch” between men and women in their expectations about child-rearing responsibilities leads to lower fertility. She also argues that this form of mismatch is more acute in the wake of sustained, rapid economic development, as women pursue newfound opportunities while many men cling to traditional views about marriage and child rearing. RELATED SOURCES “The Downside of Fertility” by Claudia Goldin, 2025. Claudia Goldin, Official Nobel Prize Interview, 2023. The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich, 1968 The Vorkosigan Saga, a series of science fiction novels by Lois McMaster Bujold in which artificial wombs profoundly influence human reproduction and the nature of society. RELATED EPISODES “Two Parents or One? What It Means for Children and Society” with Melissa Kearny on Economics, Applied, 8 May 2024. “Engaged Fathers, Flourishing Children” with Brad Wilcox and Ian Rowe, 20 August 2025. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Mary Daly joins Steven Davis to discuss how the Fed communicates with the public about monetary policy. How precise should the Fed be about its actions and goals? How transparent about its reasoning and internal deliberations? How should the Fed weigh the need for flexibility in responding to unforeseen shocks against the desire for clarity and guidance? How can the Fed improve its communications? Mary and Steve also discuss the market’s reaction to Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Monetary Policy Symposium. RELATED SOURCES “Dynamic Central Bank Communication,” a speech by Mary Daly at the Western Economic Association International Annual Conference, San Francisco, 22 June 2025. “Monetary Policy and the Fed’s Framework Review,” a speech by Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole Monetary Policy Forum, 22 August 2025. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Engaged fathers help children build happy, prosperous lives, as Steven Davis discusses with sociologist Brad Wilcox and educational entrepreneur Ian Rowe. Brad and Ian also share their ideas on how to strengthen fatherhood and help children choose better life paths. RELATED SOURCES Good Fathers, Flourishing Kids: The Importance of Fatherhood in Virginia by Brad Wilcox, Nicholas Zill, Richard Reeves, Ian Rowe, Gerard Robinson and Linda Malone-Colon, 2025. Get Married: Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox, 2024. Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power by Ian Rowe, 2022. The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind by Melissa Kearney, 2023. “Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States,” Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Patrick Kline and Emmanuel Saez, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2014. “Why Marriage Survives: The Institution Has Adapted and Is Showing New Signs of Resilience,” Brad Wilcox, The Atlantic, 29 July 2025. Natonal Marriage Project, University of Virginia Vertex Partnership Academies ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

The international economic system has reached a major turning point. Challenges include the rise of China, U.S. ambivalence about its role on the global stage, and Trumpian trade policy disruptions. What comes next, and what are the potential consequences? RELATED SOURCES “The International Monetary and Financial System: A Fork in the Road,” Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture delivered by Maurice Obstfeld in Basel, Switzerland, 29 June 2025. “Maurice Obstfeld on the Trade War’s Damage to the Monetary System,” Central Banking, 22 May 2025.  ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Since the end of World War II, the United States has played the leading role in designing, supporting, and governing the international economic system. How did the system operate, and what were its underlying principles, goals, and challenges? Steven Davis speaks to Maurice Obstfeld about the international economic system that emerged after World War II, the central role of the United States, and how the positive-sum nature of the system fostered prosperity. They consider how the system functioned in the Bretton Woods era, the Nixon Shock of 1971, high inflation in the 1970s, transition to sound monetary policy in the 1980s, and how the U.S. Dollar became even more central to the system in the 1990s. RELATED SOURCES “The International Monetary and Financial System: A Fork in the Road,” Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture delivered by Maurice Obstfeld in Basel, Switzerland, 29 June 2025. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to break down key economic developments, offering evidence-based insights and practical lessons for navigating today’s economy. Economic change is constant. Subscribe to keep up: hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. 

Steven Davis speaks with Carolina Arteaga and Victoria Barone, two Econ professors, about the US opioid epidemic. They discuss Purdue Pharma’s marketing strategy, its influence on physicians, and policy factors as drivers of the epidemic. Next, they consider economic consequences, the odd character of how the media covered the epidemic, the (slow) response of most politicians to a mounting tragedy, and how – over time – the opioid epidemic and its fallout drove a major political realignment in the United States.  RELATED SOURCES The Great Trade Hack: How Trump’s Trade War Fails and the World Moves On by Richard Baldwin, 2025 The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work by Richard Baldwin, 2019 “Destructive Trade Policy” by Steven Davis, April 2025 Trends in the Distribution of Household Income from 1979 to 2021, U.S. Congressional Budget Office, September 2024 "Dollar Dominance: A Conversation with Ken Rogoff", Economics Applied podcast, 11 June 2025  VoxEU columns At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House by H.R. McMaster, 2024

Richard Baldwin joins the podcast to speak with Steve about Trumpian Trade Policy, its underlying political logic, its lack of economic coherence, and its consequences for the American and global economies. They also discuss economic and political forces that led to the current protectionist moment in US trade policy, and whether it will endure. Finally, they outline four scenarios for the future international trading system and what it means for US economic fortunes and geopolitical influence. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Richard Baldwin is Professor of International Economics at IMD Business School and Editor-in-Chief of VoxEU, an innovative online platform that publishes short, accessible articles grounded in recent research in economics and political economy. Previously, he held faculty appointments at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Columbia Business School. He also served as Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.  Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty. RELATED SOURCES The Great Trade Hack: How Trump’s Trade War Fails and the World Moves On by Richard Baldwin, 2025 The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work by Richard Baldwin, 2019 “Destructive Trade Policy” by Steven Davis, April 2025 Trends in the Distribution of Household Income from 1979 to 2021, U.S. Congressional Budget Office, September 2024 "Dollar Dominance: A Conversation with Ken Rogoff", Economics Applied podcast, 11 June 2025  VoxEU columns At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House by H.R. McMaster, 2024

Steven Davis speaks with Kenneth Rogoff about the dominant role of the US Dollar in the international monetary and financial system, drawing on Ken’s new book, Our Dollar, Your Problem. They review how the Dollar became pre-eminent, the benefits and costs, the relationship to U.S. monetary policy, and the forces that could undermine Dollar Dominance. These include geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, the U.S. fiscal outlook, and threats to central bank independence.   Recorded on June 2, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Kenneth Rogoff is a Professor of International Economics at Harvard, former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund, chess grandmaster, and author of many influential works, including his highly celebrated book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty. RELATED SOURCES Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead by Kenneth Rogoff, 2025 This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, 2009 Foundations of International Macroeconomics by Maurice Obstfeld and Kenneth Rogoff, 1996

Steven Davis chats again with Jens Ludwig about his new book on gun deaths in America. The conversation focuses on low-cost policy solutions that can reduce gun deaths without remaking American society. The solutions include pocket parks, predictive policing, and programs that help people think about behavior in stressful situations. Recorded on April 23, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He is also the Pritzker Director of the University’s Crime Lab and codirector of the NBER’s working group on the economics of crime. His latest book, just out from the University of Chicago Press, is titled Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty. RELATED SOURCES Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence by Jens Ludwig, 2025. Jens Ludwig, personal website Crime Lab, University of Chicago Economics of Crime, NBER working group

Steve Davis speaks to Jens Ludwig about his deeply-researched new book on gun deaths in America. They discuss why America has so many gun deaths, how traditional narratives fail to explain most gun violence, and why past policies failed to reduce the deadly toll. Ludwig also advances a fuller explanation for gun violence, grounded in evidence and behavioral insights. Recorded on April 23, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He is also the Pritzker Director of the University’s Crime Lab and codirector of the NBER’s working group on the economics of crime. His latest book, just out from the University of Chicago Press, is titled Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty. RELATED SOURCES: Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence by Jens Ludwig, 2025 Jens Ludwig, personal website Crime Lab, University of Chicago Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Economics of Crime, NBER working group “Does Nothing Stop a Bullet Like a Job? The Effects of Income on Crime,” Annual Review of Criminology, 2025

Donald Trump is disrupting U.S. trade policy as never before. His tariff gyrations are roiling financial markets, raising the prospects of recession, and alarming allies. Tune in as Steve discusses the economic and geopolitical consequences with two outstanding experts on trade policy.

In the 1920s, the US government sharply restricted immigration inflows from countries in Eastern and Southern Europe. At the time, most immigrants from these countries had modest skills. Steve speaks to Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky about these immigration cutbacks, their effects on the earnings of US-born workers, and how the economy adapted. Recorded on April 2, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Ran Abramitzky is the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, Senior Associate Dean of the Social Sciences at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His studies economic history, with a focus on immigration and income inequality.  His recent book with Leah Boustan, Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs 2022), was listed on The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022, Forbes' Best Business Books of 2022, and Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2022. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

Steve speaks to Feng Chi about her research on the commercial value of the Decennial Census of Population and Housing. Using a creative empirical approach, Feng offers evidence that fresher government statistics yield better business outcomes and more value for consumers. Steve and Feng also discuss how government statistics improve the value of statistics generated in the private sector.  Recorded on March 19, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Feng Chi, a PhD candidate at Cornell University, will join the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Economics in Fall 2025. She holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a B.A. in Finance from Renmin University. Her research interests are in information economics, fintech, and entrepreneurship. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

In the 1930s, as part of the New Deal, the U.S. government hired unemployed writers to interview older Americans and record their life stories. Today’s guest examines those stories to investigate the sources of meaning, happiness, and hardship in the lives of everyday Americans. One theme to emerge is the central role of work as a source of meaning for many people. Another key theme is that men and women differ in how they find meaning in their lives and in the sources of hardship. Join Steve as he speaks with Brown University Professor Stelios Michalopoulos. Recorded on February 27, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Stelios Michalopoulos is the Eastman Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Economics at Brown University. An imaginative scholar, he works at the intersection of political economy and culture. He has conducted research on folklore, movies, the origins of ethnic diversity, the effects of colonial and pre-colonial institutions on economic development in Africa, and much more. He serves on the editorial boards of the World Bank Economic Review, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Journal of the European Economic Association. Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

Who uses generative AI in the workplace? Will the spread of GenAI tools propel a lasting productivity boom in the United States? David Deming has some answers, grounded in data.

How do immigrant students in the classroom affect the educational outcomes of US-born children? Tune in to find out!

Immigration, political backlash, consequences. It’s an old story, with many variants. Today’s episode reaches back in U.S. history to consider the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its economic consequences. You may be surprised by how it played out.

How have economic and financial sanctions on Russia affected its economy and its war-fighting capabilities? Oleg Itskhoki and Elina Ribakova join host Steven Davis to share their insights on this pressing question and on the broader question of when sanctions do and don’t work.