VoxTalk Vaults

Angus Deaton interviewed by Viv Davies, 10 January 2014

Angus Deaton talks to Viv Davies about his recent book ‘The Great Escape: health, wealth and the origins of inequality’, that explains how inequality is the catalyst for the great escape from poverty and how the world is better because of it. They discuss the state of inequality in the US, economic growth in China and India and the ineffectiveness of international aid. Deaton stresses the importance of understanding that human well being will be achieved only through a holistic approach. The interview was recorded on 17 October 2013.

Fabrizio Zilibotti interviewed by Viv Davies, 23 December 2013

Fabrizio Zilibotti talks to Viv Davies about his award-winning paper ‘Growing Like China’ (co-authored with Zheng Song, Kjetil Storesletten and Yikai Wang) that addresses the puzzle of the combination of high growth and high return to capital in China with a growing foreign surplus. They also discuss pensions and demographic transition in China, factors that are driving the country’s growth and the country’s future role in the global economy. The interview was recorded on 17 September 2013.

Jeremy Adelman interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 28 October 2013

Jeremy Adelman of Princeton University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his biography of the economist and social scientist Albert Hirschman. They discuss Hirschman’s ideas about economic development, ‘optimal’ crises and what is perhaps his most famous book among economists, "Exit, Voice and Loyalty". Adelman also speculates on what the citation would have said had Hirschman won the Nobel Prize – and explains why we should read Hirschman now. The interview was recorded in London in May 2013.

Robert Shiller interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 14 October 2013

Robert Shiller of Yale University has just been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (with Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen). In this interview recorded in May 2012, he talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book, ‘Finance and the Good Society’, which argues that even after the crisis, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. They discuss financial innovation, personal morality, the importance of education and the contribution that finance can make to our lives.

Michael Pettis interviewed by Viv Davies, 19 August 2013

Michael Pettis talks to Viv Davies about his recent book, "The Great Rebalancing: Trade, Conflict and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy". Pettis explains how China has maintained massive, but unsustainable investment growth by artificially lowering the costs of capital, and how Germany may be endangering the euro by favouring its own development at the expense of its neighbours. Pettis maintains that we are currently undergoing a critical rebalancing of world economies, and that much of the debate about the global crisis has been caught up in ‘muddled thinking’. The interview was recorded in London on 12 February 2013.

Justin Lin interviewed by Viv Davies, 08 August 2013

Justin Lin talks to Viv Davies about his new book, ‘Against the Consensus: Reflections on the Great Recession’. Lin presents his thoughts on the cause of the crisis and argues that conventional theories provide inadequate solutions, suggesting that the crisis originated in global imbalances arising from the wealth effect of excess liquidity created by US financial deregulation and loose monetary policy.They discuss Lin's recommendation for a Global Marshall Plan and a new supranational global reserve currency. Lin also presents his views on industrial policy.

Benn Steil interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 29 April 2013

Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book ‘The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order’. They discuss the ‘realpolitik’ of the 1944 conference and the scheming of the two central characters, as well as lessons for today’s efforts to reform the Eurozone and the international monetary system. The interview was recorded in London in April 2013.

Josh Lerner interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 21 March 2013

Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book "The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations". They discuss a variety of issues around the challenges of innovation, including corporate venturing, venture capital-based enterprises, patents and public investment in science. The interview was recorded in Washington, DC, at the annual meeting of the Toulouse Network on Information Technology in September 2012.

Charles Calomiris interviewed by Viv Davies, 28 January 2013

Charles Calomiris talks to Viv Davies about what he sees as a pervasive change in the politics of banking that has enabled banking regulators and supervisors to pursue bad practices. Calomiris maintains that the keys to effective prudential regulatory reform are, first, to recognise the core incentive problems that encourage risk-taking and ineffective regulation, and second, to design simple reforms that are 'incentive-robust', for which a political coalition of support will be required. The interview was recorded by phone on 24 January 2013.

Vicky Pryce interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 07 December 2012

Vicky Pryce talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about her book, "Greekonomics: The euro crisis and why politicians don’t get it". They discuss the flaws in the original conception of the single currency, Greece’s dire recent economic experiences and how Greek and European policymakers have responded to the crisis. The interview was recorded at the Bristol Festival of Economics in late November 2012.