Economics 102 with Prof Abhijit Banerjee (S2 Ep.31)
24 September 2021
My guest today is Professor Abhijit Banerjee. Professor Banerjee is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, an econ professor at MIT, and a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He is also the author of many books including “Good Economics for Hard Times”, “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty”, “What The Economy Needs Now”, and many more. Banerjee and I discussed the difference between empirical work and theoretical work in economics. We talk about Banerjee’s Nobel Prize-winning research on alleviating global poverty. We talk about whether immigrants drive down wages for native workers, the role of financial incentives and driving human behavior. We speak about welfare, the effect of globalism on American industries like manufacturing, and the social consequences of having whole industries die out, and much more.