Economics and Real World Impact with Dr. Sara Ellison & Prof. Esther Duflo

In this episode we meet professor and Nobel laureate Esther Duflo and her colleague Dr. Sara Ellison for a discussion about economics: what it is, how it differs from sociology, how it incorporates classic intellectual tools like probability and statistics with newer technologies like machine learning, and how it can itself be a tool for improving the world by solving problems of inequity one problem at a time. As Duflo and Ellison explain, economics has shifted in recent decades from a primarily solo endeavor to an intensely collaborative one, in which any given paper is likely to have multiple co-authors but also to be based on the work of an even larger group of people-not only professional economists but also psychologists, teachers, NGO workers, and so on. (Fittingly, Duflo’s and Ellison’s teaching is collaborative as well; they work together as co-instructors on the course 14.310x Data Analysis for Social Scientists, available on both MITx Online and MIT OpenCourseWare.) Other topics covered in the episode include why online shopping isn’t as cheap as it seems like it should be and why you should disable some of your spreadsheet’s default settings.
Relevant Resources:
MIT OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu)
The OCW Educator Portal (ocw.mit.edu/educator)
Professor Duflo’s faculty page (economics.mit.edu/people/facu...)
Dr. Ellison’s faculty page (economics.mit.edu/people/facu...)
14.310x Data Analysis for Social Scientists on MIT OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-310x-d...)
14.310x Data Analysis for Social Scientists on MITx Online (mitxonline.mit.edu/courses/co...)
MITx MicroMasters Program in Statistics and Data Science (micromasters.mit.edu/ds/)
Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue/)

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Credits
Sarah Hansen, host and producer ( / sarah-e-hansen )
Brett Paci, producer ( / brett_paci )
Dave Lishansky, producer ( / daveresonates )
Show notes by Peter Chipman

[@onlinedegreesandcourses]

My Father-In-Law (retired sociology prof) would agree with the following from the talk, AND be willing to tell you why he agrees (for quite a while) LOL.: “But economists tend to think about what are the consequences of some specific things, where sociologists tend to think about what are the causes of specific phenomena.”

[@cameronmcgehee]

Cool that the tape actually winds onto the other reel over the course of the episode in the graphic.

[@waqarasghar-qq7ht]

I'm listening to it while driving bike.it seems very useful and would be very helpful for me. Thanks to MIT.

[@LungteNangram]

💙

[@ThomasMiata]

Bitcoin 🎉

[@johnslugger]

*Right on! How can they talk about this topic without mentioning that the Federal Reserve Bank is just a "middle man" that steals Billions of dollars per week from the American people. The US government can print interest free money all by its self. The FED has to go!*