Podcasts & Books

Podcasts

• Planet Money from NPR: This is a classic show about economics. They cover it all. Academic papers, current events, history, you name it! They are the most accessible and entertaining of the shows I listen to. 

• The Economics Show from the Financial Times: This one has a short interview format with leading economists, academics, or policy makers focussing on current events. The interviews are very good. They are not just chatting. The tone is more formal than planet money and the show moves with the news more. 

• Cautionary Tales from Tim Harford: This one is different. Tim Harford is an amazing author and has several great books that I recommend (The Undercover Economist, The Data Detective, and more!). This podcast is extremely entertaining and extremely nerdy. It mixes stories of real world events with lessons from academic research in the social sciences. I do not miss one episode!

• Macro Musings from David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center: This is a long interview format show. David Beckworth is a macroeconomist that works a lot on topics of monetary and fiscal policy. The interviews are mostly with academic economists about new research or debates over policy trends. It is not about current events. The Mercatus Center is a pro-market research center at George Mason University in the United States. So, they do have an editorial line. But, their analysis is solid and fair. You should be aware of people's editorial biases though, it helps you judge better the information you get from them. 

• Trade Talks from the Peterson Institute: This is also a long interview format show but dedicated to trade topics. It used to be hosted by Soumanya Keynes who is now the host of The Economics Show (Financial Times). If you like or care about trade this is a must. 

• Probable Causation from Jennifer Doleac: This is yet another long interview format show, but this one is a lot more academic. It is spearheaded by Jenn Doleac, a former Professor of Economics and now Vice President for Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures. Her research is about the criminal justice system and how to improve it. The show interviews academic economists about their research and specializes in topics of applied microeconomics (closer to labor economics, or the economics of crime). Not macro, but still very interesting. 

• What Roman Mars Can Learn About Conn Law: If you are into institutions you should listen to this show. The topic is fascinating, even if you are not in the US! This is from the host and producer of 99 percent invisible a show about design and architecture that I love. Take a listen! 

• More Perfect from WNYC Studios: This is another show about US constitutional law. If you are interested in that topic I highly recommend you try it. 

Blogs and Substacks

• Economic Forces (https://www.economicforces.xyz/about) A great blog on how to use economics to understand current events. Lots of posts about competition, anti-trust, market concentration, and government spending. 

• The Briefing Book (https://www.briefingbook.info) A great blog if you want to stay up to date with the US economy. Written by economists who used to provide briefing to top policy makers, this blog gives you the type of insights discussed at the highest circles of decision making. 

Books

• Poor Economics by Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. This is a wonderful book about how economic development and the practice and design of policies affecting the poor. It covers a wide range of issues, from education and childcare, to entrepreneurship and sanitation.

• Good Economics for Hard Times also by Duflo and Banerjee. This book goes over the main challenges of contemporary economies and what economics as a discipline has to say about them. They talk trade, growth, innovation, health, and more! 

• The Undercover Economist and The Data Detective by Tim Harford. These are very accessible and entertaining books about how to think like an economist, how to see economics all around us, and how to deal with the Data that surrounds us in our everyday lives. I highly recommend them. If you are planning on working analyzing data for a living the Data Detective should be quite a useful read. 

• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Design for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. This book will change how you think about the biases imposed by the data we use. Caroline shows again and again how men making decisions based on other men's experiences biases the world leaving women behind in ways that are not obvious until you look at it from a data analysis perspective. 

• The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. This book tells the story of the academic partnership and friendship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky that led to the development of Behavioural Economics. Kahneman went out to win the Nobel prize for this. Michale Lewis has a talent for engaging story telling. You will enjoy this book. 

• The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya. If you do not know about von Neumann, you must. One of the most impactful minds of the 20th century, von Neumann did it all impacting modern mathematics, quantum physics, game theory, computer science, computer engineering, and artificial intelligence. He did it all before the 1960s!

• Streets of Gold by Ran Abramistky and Leah Boustan, two economic historians. This book tells the compelling finding from years on research about the coming of immigrants to the United States and how archival data shows how they differ from native-born Americans, and crucially how they do not! A compelling read and a relevant set of findings in a country like Canada where immigration is so vital. 

• The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at Berkeley. This book shows the findings of years of research on what makes cities so productive, the role of agglomeration for industries, and of knowledge externalities from universities, among other forces that shape how high-paying jobs are formed. 

• Economic Gangsters: Corruption Violence and the Poverty of Nations by Raymond Firman and Edward Miguel. This book shows how to use economics to study crime at a national stage. It is not easy! (not like dictators are out there sharing data on their crimes). The authors show how it is nonetheless possible to study these important issues using insights from economics. 

• Lives of the Laureates. This book is a collection of essays by winner of the economics Nobel prize. They all reflect over their careers and what led to economics and to the research that made them famous, the people they worked it, the people who influenced them. If you are curious about them, this is a good entry way.  

• The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Economic Thinkers  by Robert Heilbroner. This is somewhat of an older book about an older age in economic thinking. The book goes from the world in which Adam Smith worked to the ideas of Keynes and Schumpeter, when economics started to change into the more empirical discipline we have today. The book is slightly harder to read but it is very rewarding for its insight into the development of economics from the 18th and early 20th centuries.