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Welcome to Heller-Hurwicz Office Hours, a podcast featuring University of Minnesota economists and their research. In the podcast we’ll explore economic topics that impact our daily lives and discuss economic research aimed at improving our understanding of major societal challenges. We’ll highlight how careful economic research can inform policy decisions.
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How far can governments go in taxing trade before the global economy hisses?In this Heller-Hurwicz Office Hours episode, we explore how to quantify which products, firms, and supply chains feel the sharpest tariff impact. Professor Tom Holmes joins us to unpack how Trump's tariffs target IP-heavy industries and global brands and walks us through a new framework for assessing tariff exposure. Drawing on his work-in-progress “Tariffs for Tax Revenue: Brands, Distribution Chains, and Tariff Choice,” we explore what it means to “pluck the goose” of global trade and what it takes to walk the line between efficiency and outrage.🔑 Topics:tariffs • trade policy • brand economics • intellectual property • innovation • revenue strategy • Trump economic policy • global supply chains • economic modeling
In this special series of the podcast, we're focusing on the policy priorities of the second Trump administration and how research can inform our understanding of a rapidly changing economic environment. Over the last several months, the Trump administration is leveraging federal power and resources to systematically dismantle the nation's tools to address climate change. Among other actions, the President has defunded climate related research, withdrawn from international agreements to reduce global warming, retracted clean energy initiatives and doubled down on fossil fuels to meet the nation's growing energy needs. In this conversation, economist Bob Litterman will share his perspective on what these changes could mean for identifying and mitigating climate related economic and financial risks.
Economist Bob Litterman is well known for his risk management career on Wall Street. He has been at the forefront of using economics and a risk management framework to develop strategies that would minimize future global climate change by creating appropriate incentives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
50% of seniors get their healthcare through Medicare Advantage plans, yet the growth of Medicare Advantage has been controversial. Among the topics discussed about Medicare Advantage plans, is whether these plans are overpaid based on the level of benefits they provide to plan members. Economists Amil Petrin and Keaton Miller also calculate the impact of lower payments to Medicare Advantage providers on plan members.
Trust is an important concept in economics. Economist Chris Phelan develops a theoretical model for better understanding the impact of trustworthy and opportunistic actions by governments in less developed countries. He also discusses the role of trust and understanding the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the Federal Reserve Board's monetary policy.
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that in 2018, little more than a third of business income wasn't reported in tax filings. That's roughly $700 billion. Policymakers have long railed against the tax gap with little success. Economist Ellen McGrattan lays out a dynamic theory of business taxation, and she uses the framework to tease out the impact of two potential reforms, higher business taxes, and greater tax enforcement.
The federal income tax code is progressive. Now, we all know that, but what about state and local taxes? How progressive are they? And how much does progressivity vary among the states? Economist Jonathan Heathcote investigates: "We hear this term a lot progressivity in the tax code. But what does it actually mean? Proportional tax would be if I double your income, I doubled the amount of taxes you pay. A tax would be progressive if when you double your income, you pay more than twice as much in taxes. And then the opposite would be a regressive tax code: I double your income, you pay less than twice as much taxes."
UMN Economics Professor Jo Mullins says that cash assistance programs play a crucial role for poor households with children. "We know that from a pure accounting sense, if we look at what households in the United States get from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, i.e. cash welfare, what they get from food stamps, what they get from the Earned Income Tax Credit, and more recently, the Child Tax Credit. You know, if you add all those things up, we know that they play a significant role in poverty reduction and the rates of exposure of children to what official statistics would call the poverty rate."
In late 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice revised their Merger Guidelines, and lowered the threshold for labor market concentration, making clear that the labor market concentration is going to be an important factor in antitrust policy going forward. Hear University of Minnesota economist Kyle Herkenhoff discuss the history of M&A policy and the new 2023 Merger Guidelines.
According to Herkenhoff and his co-author's research, roughly 10% of markets in the U.S. are “single-firm markets,” meaning one company controls the jobs in that region. Additionally, in those single-firm markets, they find that workers are paid roughly 30% less than competitive wages and that monopsony power is pervasive across American industries and cities.
"We made a lot of progress in, you know, gender wage gaps and earnings gap, and so on, throughout the 70’s, the 80’s and early 90’s," says Federal Reserve Bank Researcher Anusha Nath. "And after all the policy changes that were made … we still see a huge wage gap, whether it's by gender, or whether it's by race. So even today, some of the latest numbers suggest that women earn 82 cents to $1 that men earn, if you look at the Black-white gap, it's 87 cents to $1, for Blacks versus whites."
Hear UMN Economics Professor Hannes Malmberg share why education/skills are widely acknowledged as central for economic development, yet their precise role remains uncertain.
"What we're trying to look at is the interconnection between how much does the lack of big firms connect to the lack of education in a skilled workforce," says Malmberg. "We often assume that economic growth is a well defined concept, you know? Some countries are rich, some countries are poor. I think it's an assumption you should question. And you should look at the data."
Join us for the first episode of our new season of Office Hours. Hear HHEI Director Kjetil Storesletten discuss why inequality has increased since the 1970s.
"We worry that some people are getting a rotten deal," says UMN Economics Professor Kjetil Storesletten. "And there is perhaps a trade off between what is fair and what is efficient … we've seen the biggest increase in inequality in the century over the last [few] decades, and that's concerning to many."
What does America’s increasing deficit mean for the economy? We explore the One Big, Beautiful Bill, demographics, and the risks to U.S. fiscal sustainability.America’s rising debt is one of the biggest challenges for U.S. economic policy. At the end of 2024, debt held by the public stood at 97% of GDP and is projected to reach 117% by 2034. The new One Big, Beautiful Bill adds even more pressure on the nation’s long-term fiscal sustainability.In this episode of Heller-Hurwicz Office Hours, Professor Hannes Malmberg of the University of Minnesota discusses how the One Big, Beautiful Bill impacts debt growth, what an aging population and rising inequality mean for the economy, and whether current fiscal policies set America up for resilience—or risk.Listeners will gain insights into:U.S. national debt trends and projectionsThe economic impact of the One Big, Beautiful BillThe future of American fiscal sustainability and policy
Wealth taxes are one of today's most debated economic policy topics and often proposed as a way to bolster increasingly strained government budgets, reduce income inequality, and make the tax system more fair. The Fall 2025 Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute roundtable featured Professor Florian Scheuer of the University of Zurich and HHEI Director Professor Kjetil Storesletten discussing the potential benefits and challenges of wealth taxes, highlighting recent experiences in Norway and Switzerland and discuss implications for implementing wealth taxes in the United States. Chris Farrell, a senior economics contributor for Marketplace and MPR News, moderated the discussion and audience Q&A.
In this special series of the podcast, we're focusing on the policy priorities of the second Trump administration, and how research can inform our understanding of our rapidly changing economic environment.While recent talks between the United States and China have lessened the prospect of a total halt in trade between the world’s two biggest economies, the second Trump administration’s escalated confrontations with China is already having an impact. In this conversation, economist Kjetil Storesletten will share his perspective on how China is navigating the realignment of global trade relationships.
In this special series of the podcast, we're focusing on the policy priorities of the second Trump administration, and how research can inform our understanding of our rapidly changing economic environment.Consumer frustration with high inflation after the pandemic was a big factor in the presidential election. The Federal Reserve's main tool to combat this inflation was higher interest rates, otherwise known as tightening monetary policy. While this approach has brought down inflation from the historic highs of 2022, it still hasn't hit their target of 2%. In this conversation, economist VV Chari will share his perspective on learnings from the last couple of years about inflation and monetary policy and the potential impact of President Trump's approach.
In this special series of the podcast, we're focusing on the policy priorities of the second Trump administration, and how research can inform our understanding of our rapidly changing economic environment.The ability for a nation's central bank to operate independently is a core tenet of modern monetary policy. Independence means the central bank can focus on their mission without undue political influence. President Trump is a regular critic and has pushed to have more control of the U.S.' central bank, the Federal Reserve. In this conversation, we will speak with two former top leaders of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, former President, Gary Stern, and former Director of Research, Art Rolnick, who will share their perspectives on the President’s relationship with the Federal Reserve and how some of the changes he is advocating for could play out for the United States.
In this special series of the podcast, we're focusing on the policy priorities of the second Trump administration, and how research can inform our understanding of our rapidly changing economic environment.The turn away from free trade has been a major shift. In this conversation, economists Tim Kehoe and Chris Phelan will share differing perspectives on how the President’s approach to trade policy is playing out for the United States.
The Spring 2025 Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute roundtable featured Governor Adriana D. Kugler, a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System on "Transmission of Monetary Policy and the U.S. Economic Outlook". The discussion and audience Q&A were moderated by Dr. Juan Pablo Nicolini, a senior research economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Economic Policy was a hot topic in the recent presidential campaign. Please join us for an impromptu and informal discussion on the possible economic policies of the incoming Trump administration, focusing on tariffs, taxes, and trade. Our discussion features Professors Timothy Kehoe and Christopher Phelan from the Department of Economics.
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