For the 30 years leading up to the COVID pandemic, productivity in US restaurants was essentially flat. Since the pandemic, restaurant productivity has soared—because of the rise of take-out and delivery. Chicago Booth's Chad Syverson about his research into the restaurant productivity boom. How has take-out and delivery transformed the economics of the food industry?
Critics of social welfare programs often talk about how payments can disincentivize work. But is that always the case? Chicago Booth's Rebecca Dizon Ross talks about her research on how parents of disabled children think about the social safety net and investing in their kids' human capital. Could giving them better information help shape their thinking and behavior?
It's a cliché for organizations to say that their people are their most important asset, but how important is the person at the top? Can we measure the impact of a CEO or a manager? Chicago Booth's Mike Gibbs gives us a survey of economic research on leadership and management. How much of a difference does a good leader make? And why do "manager-types" so often struggle when they get promoted to leadership roles?
Economics is all around us. At least, that's what Chicago Booth's Ram Shivakumar believes, and he's on a mission to demonstrate that economics is not about numbers or theoretical models, but is at play in many everyday decisions, like whether to order a pizza, where to buy it from and what toppings to get. If economics isn't about numbers, what is it about?
A warmer world is here. Now what? Listen to Shocked, from the University of Chicago's Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and hear journalist Amy Harder and economist Michael Greenstone share new ways of thinking about climate change and cutting-edge solutions: https://lnk.to/shockedpodcast!boothreview
In the west, we are more likely to choose our friends and dropping them is relatively easily done. In other cultures, people tend to stick with the same social network for their whole lives. But does the ability to choose and to drop your friends make you happier? Chicago Booth's Thomas Talhelm tells us about his research on social circles and happiness. Why do friendships endure more in Japan than in the US? Who's happier? And how important is happiness anyway?
Most companies talks about the importance of innovation and collaboration, but the connection tends to be more of a hunch than a demonstrable fact. So can we measure whether collaboration really produces better ideas? Chicago Booth's Mike Gibbs talks about his research on social networks and innovation. Does having a bigger network make you more likely to come up with new and better ideas? And how has remote work affected networking and innovation?
Would you work if you weren't being paid for it? Social media is full of people criticizing companies for exploiting interns and prospective hires by underpaying or not paying them. Is that a universal feeling, or does it reflect western values and attitudes that aren't replicated elsewhere in the world? Chicago Booth's Thomas Talhelm talks about his research on what motivates people around the world to work.
The median home price in the US in 1970 was approximately $23,400, less than 2.5 times the median family income at the time of about $9,870. By last year, the median home price was more than $400,000, about 5 times the median family income of about $80,000. No surprise that people are warning about a housing affordability crisis. To what extent is that driven by the increasing cost of building homes? Chicago Booth's Chad Syverson talks about his research on the weak link between building costs and home prices. What's really behind the price increases in residential real estate?
Have you had an AI job interview? Would you prefer to be interviewed by AI than by a human? And how would you expect AI interviewers to perform compared to their human counterparts? Chicago Booth's Brian Jabarian talks about his research on AI interviews. Will they make human-to-human job interviews a thing of the past?
One way health policymakers can get people to exercise more is to pay them. But should we pay greater amounts to people who exercise more, and smaller sums to those who do less? Rebecca Dizon Ross tells us about her research on personalizing incentive payments to try to encourage exercise. Does getting people to choose their own exercise targets and financial compensation encourage them to walk more?
AI is untrustworthy. It hallucinates, making up information or extrapolating by itself. That might make it frustrating to use, but could it prove more of a feature than a bug? Chicago Booth's Veronika Ročková uses statistical methods that exploit the randomness in AI responses to improve medical diagnoses, and even to classify galaxies more efficiently.
Technology is typically thought of as driving humans apart. But could it be used to promote a sense of empathy with others? Chicago Booth's Alex Imas tells us about an experiment he ran using an immersive virtual-reality installation. Virtual reality, Imas reckons, could be used to help us relate to other people in real life.
We typically think of self-awareness as being a good thing. But if someone behaves badly and is aware that they're behaving badly, is that worse than if they're blissfully unaware? Chicago Booth's Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the effects of self-awareness. When should we express self-awareness, and when should we convey that we weren't as self-aware as we should have been?
Almost all companies borrow money – some of secured by assets they own, other debts unsecured. But is that distinction meaningful in the real world? Chicago Booth's Raghuram Rajan talks about his research into corporate debt. In the past century, the amount of unsecured debt has soared. What's the significance of that, and is it really unsecured?
What do startup founders need to do to get venture capitalists to invest? Do VCs invest in the right team, or the right idea? Do they invest where they can add value, or do they try to pick new businesses that are going to be winners from the start? Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan has surveyed venture capitalists to find out what they look for in startups, and he has a framework he uses to advise both founders and funders on how to pick winning companies.
When students are asked if they use AI to do their work, many say they don't. But when they're asked if other students re using AI, many more say that they do. Should we conclude that they're not being honest about their own AI use? Chicago Booth's Alex Imas has conducted research on students and AI. Why is using AI such a taboo? And how should schools and colleges respond to its inevitable creep?
It's hard to say sorry, and it can be even harder to say sorry without following it up with whatever the other person did wrong. Why are apologies so hard? Chicago Booth's Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the strategy of apologizing and blaming. Why do we care so much about others accepting their share of the blame? And when we know that we've done wrong, what's holding us back from apologizing?
The Trump administration has gutted central government, lashed out at the Federal Reserve, and is attempting to dismantle the international trading order. Can America's institutions survive? We hear from Chicago Booth's Raghuram Rajan about the role of institutions in political economy. Are we seeing a reversal of fortunes, in which the US is looking more and more like a caricature of a poor country with poorly regarded institutions, growing inequality and a looming sovereign debt crisis?
Private equity investments are typically locked up for many years, which means investors don't know at any point in time how much their stakes are worth. Should they take at face value the valuations that PE firms provide? Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan has detected patterns in private equity valuation reports that reveal whether the company will be sold at a premium, and when that exit might happen. So how can investors get a better sense of when and how big their payoffs will be?