Economic Rockstar

Connecting Brilliant Minds in Economics and Finance

042: Parviz Parvizi on Clammr, Coffee, Coase and the Economy of Iran

by

Play in New WindowDownload

042: Parviz Parvizi on Clammr, Coffee, Coase and the Economy of Iran

Parviz Parvizi is co-founder of Clammr, a mobile app and platform making audio more social and viral. Users areParviz Parvizi on the Economic Rockstar podcast calling Clammr, which features snack-sized audio clips of 18 seconds or less, the “Instagram of Audio” and “Audio Twitter”.

Previously, Parviz worked at McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Communications Commission, and O’Melveny & Myers.

He has advised top 5 global media companies and mobile carriers on strategy and growth. He was a founder of McKinsey’s iConsumer research initiative on digital consumer behavior, authoring 3 of the firm’s 10 most-downloaded media sector knowledge documents.

Parviz was a Olin Law & Economics Fellow at Yale Law School. At Cornell he majored in economics and served as President of the Cornell Economics Society while an undergraduate.

Parviz holds a JD from Yale Law School and AB from Cornell.

Economics:

In this interview, Parviz mentions and discusses: development economics, poverty, transitional economies, microeconomics, exports, auction markets, transaction costs, fair trade, taxes, theory of specialisation, Coase theorem, theory of the firm, property rights, bargaining power, market prices, transaction costs, fair trade, economic growth, consumption, productivity, autarky,

Economists

In this interview, Parviz mentions and discusses: Friedrich Hayek, Adam Smith,David Ricardo, Ronald Coase and Steven Dubnar, 

Favorite Economists:

  • Adam Smith and Ronald Coase

Clammr as featured on Economic Rockstar

Find Out:

  • about Clammr, the amazingly new app that shares an 18-second audio clip just like an audio tweet.
  • about Parviz Parvizi’s journey from Iran to the US.
  • how Parviz Parvizi got his name.
  • how there are 4 hours of audio-only time each day for people and how Clammr can accommodate your needs.
  • about the motivation behind the creation of Clammr and how Parviz and his co-founder solved a problem.
  • how Clammr was built up from the beginning at zero cost.
  • what Clammr found out about podcasting.
  • the difficulties of growing and monetising a podcast and how Clammr is helping podcasters to solve these challenges.
  • about the social aspect of Clammr and how you can share audio snippets to your friends, colleagues and audience.
  • if Clammr will adopt a monetization model similar to YouTube.
  • how Clammr’s ‘Hear More’ button can potentially lead to a paid transaction for users.
  • about the opportunities that exist for users of Clammr in the education sector.
  • how teachers can use Clammr in assessments and how students can collaborate to give their audio response in a mashup-like answer.
  • how Clammr could be the new route for a musician to become known, just like the way Justin Bieber made it using YouTube.
  • how being an early adopter of a new platform can lead to a large following.
  • about the sensation that is PewDiePie on YouTube and his degree in Industrial Economics.
  • about Parviz’s work in the Tanzania and Ethiopia coffee trade market.
  • about the challenges faced by African coffee growers and how Parviz solved this problem.
  • Parviz’s views on the recent US-Iran deal.
  • how the US-Iran deal may have economic limitations due to Iran’s economy being 70% state-dominated.
  • about the benefits of an export-oriented market economy.
  • about the benefits of a knowledge economy.
  • how democracy and economic growth could improve if marginalised groups in society are helped.

Quotes by Parviz in Episode 042 of the Economic Rockstar Podcast:

  • You build a more sustainable business if the way you get paid is a way in which all parties involved actually get value – Parviz Parvizi

Advice:

  • Don’t sell yourself short in terms of where you’re aiming and don’t think that your starting point has to define your ending point – Parviz Parvizi

  • Even if you’re aren’t getting access to the very best schools, it doesn’t actually take that much time to catch up with hard work – Parviz Parvizi

  • Aim high and exposing yourself to people, institutions and places of incredibly high standards is a great way to push yourself even if initially you’re kind of a failure”– Parviz Parvizi

Recommended Books:

The Next Decade of Podcasting:

Where to Find Parviz Parvizi:

Links for the Clammr App:

  • Download Clammr for iPhone/iPad in the App Store or by visiting Clammr.
  • For Android use the web-based publisher to upload files and for a basic listening experience.
  • Workshop and update videos.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

041: Dermot Hayes on Comparative Advantage, Feeding the Chinese and the Malthusian Catastrophe

by

Play in New WindowDownload

041: Dermot Hayes on Comparative Advantage, Feeding the Chinese and the Malthusian Catastrophe

Dermot Hayes is the Pioneer Chair of Agribusiness, professor of economics, and professor of finance at Iowa State University. He heads theDermot Hayes 2 Trade and Agricultural Policy Division at CARD, a position he also held from 1990 through 1998.

He is co-director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, a research center dually administered through the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State and at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He is also a leader of the Policy Task Force of the Plant Science Institute at Iowa State.

A native of the Republic of Ireland, Dermot obtained his degree in agriculture science from University College, Dublin and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley with a major in international trade.

Dermot has distinguished himself with many awards at the college and university levels for his work as a teacher and researcher.

In 2006 he received a Publication of Enduring Quality award from the American Agricultural Economics Association, who subsequently named him a Fellow in 2007.

Besides his analysis of U.S. farm policy and international agricultural trade, Dermot’s other research interests include food safety, livestock modelling, demand analysis, and commodity markets.

Economics:

In this interview, Dermot mentions and discusses: market inefficiencies, government intervention, agricultural economics, property rights, comparative advantage, autarky, incentives, scarcity, Malthusian Catastrophe, free-trade, unemployment, subsidies and taxes.

Economists:

In this interview, Dermot mentions and discusses: Jason Shogren, Paul Dolan, David Zetland, David Simon, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Zilberman, Milton Friedman and Josh Angrist.

Influencer:

Milton Firedman

“Whenever prices rise, farmers and technology companies have an incentive to work harder to take advantage of high prices. And of course they do that by producing more and that brings prices back down again.” – Dermot Hayes

“Malthus was wrong. He was a negative person. But having said that, with more people and less efficient use of land, we are going to have to bring more land into cultivation – this is devastating to the environment.” – Dermot Hayes

In this episode, you will learn:

  • how China is finding ways to feed its people and how self-sufficiency no longer works.
  • about China’s ever-increasing demands for soybeans, sugar, wine, etc and how this is putting demands on the global agricultural industry.
  • how Ireland lost its comparative advantage in milk production by joining the EU.
  • about Kerrygold Irish grass-fed butter and Bullet-proof coffee.
  • why Kerry Group are only ‘scratching the surface’ in the US market.
  • what high-value, labor-intensive products China should concentrate on producing in order to feed their population and trade with other countries.
  • about if the Chinese government owns much of the land and property rights in China.
  • ‘terminator seeds’ and how private companies could be incentivised to manufacture them.
  • about the use of beta agonists, such as ractopomine, in the use of animal food production.
  • why Europe’s method of testing agricultural technologies frustrates Dermot.
  • about Dermot’s work on free-trade agreements between countries.
  • about Dermot’s ‘controversial’ ethanol research paper.
  • why Dermot created a formula that allowed the price of corn to track crude oil prices and how he bought agricultural land based on his findings.
  • how academic research can open up hatred and attacks amongst your peers and the industry to which you maybe researching.
  • what advice Dermot would give a government regarding the taxing and subsidies of goods and services for the purpose of trade.

Takeaway:

“If you haven’t travelled to strange places like Burma or Uruguay, find a way to do so and you’l come back a changed person.” – Dermot Hayes

Recommended Books:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download