Money & Macro Talks

In Sweden, Norway and Finland, women have more freedom and opportunity than almost anywhere else on Earth. Yet these are also the places where fewer women choose to study engineering or computer science. Economists and psychologists call this the gender-equality paradox, and it is one of the most hotly debated findings in social science.
In this episode, I talk to Manuel Bagues, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, about his new research with Natalia Zinovyeva. Their answer starts somewhere unexpected: the playground and the extra-school activities, which are usually highly gender-segregated.

Interview with Ilyaz Nasrullah (computer scientist & columnist) about his new book.
The book in Dutch can be found here: https://www.nieuwezijds.nl/boek/dit-is-ai/

Research mentioned in the conversation: https://fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf
& https://youtu.be/kopoLzvh5jY?si=AHDAGAFmSk5K004B

In just a couple of years, South Korea turned from one of the world's largest defense importers to exports. In this interview, Korean expert HG Hong (Platoon Magazine) explains why.

Big Tech has never been bigger. Google, Amazon and Metaserve more customers and earn bigger profits every year, and AI companies are claiming a growing share of the stock market. For many, that's a warning sign: the bigger these firms get, the harder they are to challenge, and the easier itbecomes to charge more and deliver less without losing customers. It's the opposite of how competitive markets are supposed to work, and the reason calls to revive antitrust enforcement keep growing louder.
But is market power really on the rise? And are monopoliespart of why everything feels so expensive? In this episode, Alejandro talks with Brian Albrecht, chief economist at the International Center for Law & Economics, about what the data actually says on markups, competition and corporate power, and why economists disagree so sharply about it.

Why have fertility rates collapsed in the past decades? Is there anything governments can do to reverse this situation? In this episode, we review the leading explanations for long-run demographic change, the role of smartphones, and the evidence for and against different policies aimed at boosting birth rates at the national level.