Economics, Applied

Steve Davis welcomes Harvard’s Wenxin Du to discuss her analysis of how to cost-effectively transfer funds across international borders. Perhaps surprisingly, the all-in costs of using stablecoins for small-amount transfers (less than $10,000) greatly exceed the cost of using fintech apps and sometimes exceed the cost of relying on commercial banks. Along the way, Wenxin’s analysis also highlights...

At the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, OECD chief economist Stefano Scarpetta joins Steven J. Davis to discuss how distributed ledger technology, stablecoins, and tokenization could make transactions more efficient and less expensive, while expanding access to financial markets. Scarpetta explains that for these technologies to perform successfully at scale, users need to have confidence i...

ECB Executive Board Member Philip Lane joins Steven Davis at Jackson Hole to discuss AI’s impact on Euro-area economies, why Europe lags the United States in this area, the role of regulations and VC financing, and the challenges of integrating AI technologies into workflows and production pipelines.  ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied  brings together top leaders and researchers to break...

Ken Rogoff joins Steve Davis at Jackson Hole to discuss our limited understanding of real interest rates, the risks associated with high government debt levels, and what it all means for the conduct of fiscal policy. They also discuss how the external political environment and incentives within the economics profession can, and did, lead to imprudent advice about fiscal policy from leading profess...

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee joins Steve Davis to discuss his recent speech on how central banks should respond to supply shocks. Goolsbee argues that the Fed should not simply “look through” supply shocks but should instead treat them as persistent or recurring and, hence, as a call for tightening by the Fed. The discussion ranges widely from oil shocks and inflation in the 1970s to supp...

Steven Davis asks Anil Kashyap to unpack recent US interventions in the Treasury bond market and the Yen-Dollar FX market and whether they can meaningfully influence borrowing costs. They also examine fiscal pressures in the United States and Japan and what Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech signals for inflation, interest rates, and monetary policy. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Ap...

How can we reap the benefits of financial innovation while ensuring a sound, trustworthy financial system? Steven Davis asks IMF head Kristalina Georgieva at Jackson Hole. Their conversation touches on tokenization, stablecoins, cross-border payments, and regulatory frameworks. Georgieva describes strong institutions as the fertile ground for dynamic and stable financial innovation as well as the...

Raghuram Rajan, former Reserve Bank of India governor, joins Steve Davis at the Jackson Hole Symposium to offer his take on Fed chairman Kevin Warsh’s speech and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s recent intervention in bond markets. Rajan explains why attempts to push down long-term yields can distort important market signals, and why rising debt-servicing costs could ultimately force policymaker...

Tom Barkin, president and CEO of the Richmond Fed, chats with Steve about Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium. They also discuss Ken Rogoff’s lunchtime remarks about the end of low real interest rates and what that means for the US fiscal outlook. They wrap up with reflections on lessons learned about housing (un)affordability by driving around Maryland, West Virginia, Vir...

Jeffrey Schmid sits down with Steven Davis at the 49th edition of the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. They chat about Kevin Warsh’s keynote speech, innovations in the payments system, digital assets, competition for banks, and what it means for crisis management by the Fed and other central banks. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied  brings together top leaders and researchers to b...

Steven Davis chats with Ross Levine about how the rule of law and competition foster prosperity and freedom in a system of market-based capitalism. They highlight the moral dimensions of the case for capitalism and its limits. They explain why the state is necessary for well-functioning markets, and how state power can undermine competition, prosperity, and freedom. They also discuss the toughest...

Steven Davis chats with Liya Palagashvili about her new paper on “Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of Independent Work.” They start with a discussion of why, as a matter of economics, it’s plausible that generative AI tools make it easier to operate solo businesses. They then turn to Liya’s evidence, which suggests that AI has helped spur the growth of one-person businesses since 2024 in the U...

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are deaf or hard of hearing, which can impair job performance. Can AI tools help? Steven Davis speaks to two researchers who study the effects of a new AI tool on the productivity and wages of hearing-impaired workers in the food delivery business. They also discuss how the profit motive drove the adoption and diffusion of the new AI tool, raising th...

Steven Davis speaks to Aaron Chalfin and Max Kapustin about “focused deterrence,” a strategy that concentrates policing and social services on persons at high risk of gang-related gun violence. After Baltimore implemented this strategy in early 2022, its homicide rate fell 60% over three years. Aaron and Max explain the strategy, and Steve asks them what we know about how and why it works. They al...

Steve speaks with William Evans and Ethan Lieber about the heartbreaking rise of deaths due to drug misuse in the United States. A major shift in prescription practices for pain management after 1995 drove higher levels of opiate use and misuse and contributed to an explosion of illicit opiates in the 21st century. It’s a disturbing story of professional misjudgments, deceptive marketing, policy m...

Cross-border supply chains bring great efficiencies but also present vulnerabilities that adversaries can exploit. How should we think about these vulnerabilities and their implications for economic and national security? How can we identify, assess, and respond to these vulnerabilities? Steve asks two noted trade policy experts, Chad Bown and Soumaya Keynes. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Ap...

Steven Davis speaks to Evan Starr, a leading expert on the economics of noncompete clauses. They discuss the prevalence of noncompete clauses in employment agreements; the pros and cons for employers, workers, and society; where to draw the line in disallowing noncompete clauses; the role of antitrust in policing noncompete clauses; their effects on the pace of innovation; and whether the United S...

When job loss leads to a long spell of unemployment, it causes a big blow to self-esteem, a lasting drop in living standards, and serious hardship for the job loser’s family. Is there a low-cost way to help job losers navigate the search process and find rewarding new work? Yes, say two economists at Cornell University, based on their insightful new study. Steve discusses the study and underlying...

How does war affect national output, productivity, and consumer prices in belligerent countries and economies worldwide? Two economists, Jonathan Federle and Moritz Schularick, investigate how war and its intensity relate to national output, productivity, consumer prices, and international trade. They exploit 150 years of data for 60 countries. Steven Davis chats with them about what they learned....

Mortality rates fell sharply for college-educated Americans in recent decades but not for other Americans. Mortality trends also differ sharply between rural and urban areas of the United States and across US counties. Steven Davis asks Jonathan Skinner about these puzzling and troubling trends, and how to explain them. According to Jonathan’s recent research, “Deaths of despair,” “the China shock...

Tariffs: How high? Who pays? And what’s their impact on trade deficits? Steven Davis speaks to Brent Neiman about President Trump’s approach to tariff policy and the latest data on trade deficits. While tariffs are up in 2025, Brent’s research reveals that actual tariff rates are only half as high as headlines suggest. Steve and Brent also discuss who pays Trump’s tariffs, how we know, the damage...

US military forces captured Nicolás Maduro last month, but the Chavista regime remains intact, at least for now. How can Venezuela find its way back to the rule of law, human rights, democracy, and prosperity? What role should the United States play? Steven Davis asks renowned economist Ricardo Hausmann. ABOUT ECONOMICS, APPLIED Economics, Applied brings together top leaders and researchers to bre...

The United States has looked to Asia for software developers, scientists, engineers, and physicians in recent decades. How has that worked out for Americans? For other countries?  Immigrants from five Asian countries — India, China, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines — account for much of the growth in U.S. software developers, scientists, engineers, and physicians since 1990. What forces dro...

The U.S. occupational licensing system is riddled with problems and conflicts of interest. How can we fix it? Rebecca Allensworth joins Steven Davis to talk about her new book on occupational licensing, which covers one-fifth of all American jobs. Licensing reduces supply, limits competition, raises prices, and harms consumers, benefiting incumbent practitioners at the public's expense. The US app...

Nicholas Bloom joins Steven Davis to discuss cool new research presented at the annual  Hoover-SIEPR conference  on remote work: How much do employers save on wages when they let employees work from home? Why does remote work raise productivity in some settings but lower it in others? Do children perform better at school when parents work from home? What does the rise of remote work mean for citie...