Political Economy Forum

Dennis Young , PhD student in Political Science at the UW,  presents his research on Immigration Detention Centers in the US. 

Will Gochberg , Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington University in St. Louis speaks to Morgan about his dissertation project on community-level dynamics of land rights in Uganda.

In this episode,  Professor Victor Menaldo  and Nicolas Wittstock explore the facts, logic, and evidence behind the consumer welfare approach to antitrust. That approach asks very simple questions: what is the effect of mergers between competitors or the behavior of firms with market power on prices and innovation? Since the early 1980s, this paradigm—away from a populist “big is bad” ap...

UW Economics Professor and Forum Co-Founder Rachel Heath joins Forum Fellow Morgan Wack to discuss her paper on the effects of international scrutiny on worker conditions, wages, and contracts in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza factory collapse as well as contemporary issues in the global manufacturing sector. See links on the showpage here . 

Victor Menaldo and James Long of Political Economy Forum discuss why a coup is unlikely in the US, the anxieties & realities of political transitions, and what the historical record can teach us about contested elections. See links on the showpage here .

Forum Fellow Morgan Wack hosts Guy Grossman , Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, founder and director of U Penn’s Development Research Initiative ( PDRI ), and faculty affiliate of Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Lab ( IPL ).

In this episode,   Nicolas Wittstock hosts  PhD Candidate Beatrice Magistro . They discuss Beatrice’s dissertation on the relationship between financial and economic literacy and policy preferences in Italy and the UK. They discuss her motivation to pursue this topic, its importance in today’s context of rampant populism and protectionism, the findings from her four papers, and future di...

In this episode of the Political Economy Forum Podcast, James Long hosts   Victor Menaldo and Ben Glasner . They discuss the gig economy and the future of work. The topics range from Ben's dissertation on the role of labor market protections and the social safety net among the self-employed and independent contracts, Victor’s hobby horse of automation and the future of work, and the role COVI...

In this episode of the Political Economy Podcast Nicolas Wittstock hosts Mark Menaldo and Victor Menaldo . They discuss Mark's forthcoming piece on the existential philosopher Martin Heidegger and his influence on politics .  They discuss the different branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, namely, the study of reality, and the origins and consequences of postmodernism. One of the mai...

This episode is a conversation between Professor Victor Menaldo , Jesse – a friend of the forum who works for a Big Tech company – and Nicolas Wittstock . The conversation revolves around a recent piece published on Areo , authored by Victor Menaldo that discusses modern threats to Liberal Democracy around the globe.

A special crossover episode of Neither Free Nor Fair? with the Political Economy Forum , James Long , Victor Menaldo , and Mark Smith discuss the presidential debates, whether the remaining debates should be canceled or not, and the role of debates to democracy.

In this new podcast series, “Neither Free Nor Fair?” we will try to make sense of the evolving threats to election security and democracy in the US and around the world. The series is produced by the Political Economy Forum at the University of Washington and hosted by me, James Long , Associate Professor of Political Science and co-founder of the Forum. I research and teach on elections, corrupti...

In this episode of the Political Economy Forum Podcast, Professor Victor Menaldo and Nicolas Wittstock discuss the meaning and virtues of Liberal Democracy and the political earthquakes that Populists have provoked across contemporary democracies. The conversation mentions works by North, Wallis, and Weingast , Levitsky and Ziblatt , John Wallis , Cas Mudde , Magistro and Menaldo , and Munger and...

In this episode, Professor Victor Menaldo and Nicolas Wittstock discuss Capitalisms historical trajectory and the pathbreaking economic expansion of the last 250 years as well as concerns over the current economic performance of industrialized economies. The conversation mentions works by Deirdre McCloskey , James Bessen , Robert Gordon , Haber and Calomiris , Ronald Coase as well as Daron Acemogl...

In this episode, the founders and organizers of the UW Political Economy Forum discuss the importance of the scientific method to improve how policymakers make decisions. Professors Rachel Heath , James D. Long and Victor Menaldo discuss how scientific inquiry is conducted in political economy and public policy – the pitfalls of relying on intuition and ideology when deciding on policy – and how t...

“If we don’t try to solve the fundamental problem behind the speech that we dislike and work only to mitigate the symptom — by censoring it — we drive the problem somewhere else.” This week, Professor James D. Long hosts an eclectic group of thinkers to discuss the recent op-ed by Professor Victor Menaldo on free speech and liberal democratic politics, published in the Seattle Times. They are join...

In this episode, University of Washington Professors Rachel Heath, James Long, and Victor Menaldo discuss what Political Economy is and what it has to offer.