Economics, Applied

Steve queries Chad Bown and Doug Irwin about the rupture in U.S. trade policy under Trump 2.0, the economic consequences, and what it would take to restore confidence in the United States as a reliable trade partner.

Recorded on April 16, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Chad Bown is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, former Chief Economist for the U.S. State Department and the host of  Trade Talks, a podcast about international trade and trade policy.

Douglas Irwin is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute, and author of several books on trade and trade policy, including Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy and Free Trade Under Fire.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

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In the 1920s, the US government sharply restricted immigration inflows from countries in Eastern and Southern Europe. At the time, most immigrants from these countries had modest skills. Steve speaks to Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky about these immigration cutbacks, their effects on the earnings of US-born workers, and how the economy adapted.

Recorded on April 2, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Ran Abramitzky is the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, Senior Associate Dean of the Social Sciences at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His studies economic history, with a focus on immigration and income inequality.  His recent book with Leah Boustan, Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs 2022), was listed on The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022, Forbes' Best Business Books of 2022, and Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2022.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

Steve speaks to Feng Chi about her research on the commercial value of the Decennial Census of Population and Housing. Using a creative empirical approach, Feng offers evidence that fresher government statistics yield better business outcomes and more value for consumers. Steve and Feng also discuss how government statistics improve the value of statistics generated in the private sector. 

Recorded on March 19, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Feng Chi, a PhD candidate at Cornell University, will join the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Economics in Fall 2025. She holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a B.A. in Finance from Renmin University. Her research interests are in information economics, fintech, and entrepreneurship.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

In the 1930s, as part of the New Deal, the U.S. government hired unemployed writers to interview older Americans and record their life stories. Today’s guest examines those stories to investigate the sources of meaning, happiness, and hardship in the lives of everyday Americans. One theme to emerge is the central role of work as a source of meaning for many people. Another key theme is that men and women differ in how they find meaning in their lives and in the sources of hardship. Join Steve as he speaks with Brown University Professor Stelios Michalopoulos.

Recorded on February 27, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Stelios Michalopoulos is the Eastman Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Economics at Brown University. An imaginative scholar, he works at the intersection of political economy and culture. He has conducted research on folklore, movies, the origins of ethnic diversity, the effects of colonial and pre-colonial institutions on economic development in Africa, and much more. He serves on the editorial boards of the World Bank Economic Review, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Journal of the European Economic Association.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

Steve speaks to Harvard professor David Deming about his recent research on the use of GenAI tools in the workplace and what it means for productivity. David’s evidence suggests that GenAI tools have already boosted U.S. labor productivity, with more gains to come. They also highlight the role of unfettered market-based experimentation in sorting out where GenAI tools work well, and where they don’t. In closing, David explains why he titles his substack newsletter Forked Lightning.

Recorded on February 19, 2025.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

David Deming is the Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Faculty Dean of Kirkland House at Harvard College. He has authored noteworthy and award-winning research on the long-run impacts of schooling, soft skills, social mobility, and many other topics. In 2018, he received the David N. Kershaw Prize for distinguished contributions to the field of public policy and management. In 2022, he received the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to labor economics. In addition to his scholarly research and his substack newsletter, he writes for the New York Times and The Atlantic.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

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Many parents – indeed, many Americans – worry that immigrant children in the classroom could detract from the quality of schooling received by U.S.-born children. It’s a reasonable concern. Today’s episode considers new evidence on how more vs. less exposure to immigrant students affects the educational performance of U.S.-born children, drawing on rich data for students at public schools in Florida.  

Recorded on January 22, 2025. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

David Figlio is the Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics and Education at the University of Rochester and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He studies school accountability, the link between health and education, social welfare policies, and the academic profession. He collaborates frequently with state and local health and education agencies, and recently led a National Science Foundation-sponsored network to facilitate the use of matched administrative datasets to inform and evaluate education policy. He was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2017.

Paola Sapienza is the J-P Conte Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she co-directs the J-P Conte Initiative on Immigration. She is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research affiliate of the Center for Economic Policy Research, and a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Her main research focuses on the impact of cultural norms on economic decisions and outcomes. She applies these concepts to financial development, political economy, and education. Her work in education investigates how vertical and horizontal cultural transmission of preferences may affect educational outcomes.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

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Many Chinese nationals migrated to the western United States after 1840 to work in mining, railway construction, manufacturing, and personal services. By 1880, they made up 18 percent of the workforce in the western United States. That led to strong social and political backlash among whites, rooted partly in concerns about jobs and wages. Congress responded with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the immigration of Chinese and shut the door to naturalization for Chinese already living in the U.S. The conversation in today’s episode focuses on two questions: First, how did the Chinese Exclusion Act affect economic development in the Western United States? Second, how did it affect white workers?

Recorded on January 9, 2024.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Nancy Qian is an empirical economist who studies economic development, political economy and economic history, with attention to the interplay between economics, geogrpahy, demographics, politics and culture. She co-directs the Global Poverty Research Lab at Northwestern University and founded the independent China Econ Lab.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

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Oleg Itskhoki and Elina Ribakova join host Steven Davis to discuss two big questions about economic statecraft: How have economic and financial sanctions on Russia affected its economy and its war-fighting capabilities? More broadly, when are sanctions likely to be effective, ineffective, or downright counterproductive?

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Oleg Itskhoki is a professor of economics at Harvard, a research associate of the NBER, CPER research affiliate, and an associate editor of the American Economic Review. He previously held faculty positions at UCLA and Princeton. Among his other honors, he is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a recipient of the 2022 John Bates Clark Medal.

Elina Ribakova is a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and director of the International Affairs Program and vice president for foreign policy at the Kyiv School of Economics. Her previous positions include managing director and head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Research at Deutsche Bank and director and chief economist for Russia and the Commonwealth for Independent States at Citigroup.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

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Hoover Senior Fellow Steven Davis and Stanford Economics Professor Nick Bloom review insights from the latest research on remote work, drawing on a recent conference at Stanford University. Steve and Nick discuss Return-to-Office mandates (RTOs) and their impact on company performance, and long-distance CEOs and why companies hire them. They also explore how remote work facilitated a boom in business start-ups, recent employment gains among people with disabilities, the high value of flexible working arrangements for parents, hard times for burglars, good times for golf, and more.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His research focuses on working from home, management practices, and uncertainty. He previously worked at the Treasury of the United Kingdom, McKinsey & Company, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from University College London.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of the Guggenheim and Sloan Fellowships, the Frisch Medal, and a National Science Foundation Career Award. In 2022, he was named among the “Bloomberg 50” people and ideas that defined global business for his insights on working from home.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is an economic adviser to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

RELATED RESOURCES:

• Hoover Institution Conference on The Implications of Remote Work

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• Nick Bloom on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nick-bloom-86b79510b/

Host Steven Davis engages Wendy Edelberg and Madeline Zavodny to discuss the recent wave of U.S. immigration and some of its implications. They discuss the surge in immigration since 2021, the extent to which it reflects unlawful entry, its impact on employment growth, its fiscal consequences, and the failure of U.S. statistical authorities to accurately measure the scale of the surge in real time. They also provide historical context by comparing recent immigration waves from Latin America to past influxes from Europe and Asia. Lastly, the guests discuss potential policy changes to raise the economic benefits of immigration and address fiscal impacts on local governments.

For more episodes about immigration: 

• The Political Reaction to Immigration

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Wendy Edelberg is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where she directs the Hamilton Project. Previously, she served as Principal Chief Economist at the Congressional Budget Office and executive director of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. She worked for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during two administrations. She co-chairs the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Climate and Macroeconomics Roundtable and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Madeline Zavodny is the Donna L. Gibbs and First Coast Systems Professor of Economics at UNF. She is also a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Fellow at the Global Labor Organization, and Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Her research focuses on economic issues related to immigration, including Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization (AEI Press, 2010) and The Economics of Immigration (Routledge, 2015; 2nd ed. 2021). Before joining UNF she was a professor of economics at Agnes Scott College and Occidental College and an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.

Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

RELATED RESOURCES:

• New Immigration Estimates Help Make Sense of the Pace of Employment 

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• Wendy Edelberg: x.com/WendyEdelberg