Economic Rockstar

Connecting Brilliant Minds in Economics and Finance

075: Kate Bahn on Monopsony in the Market for Teachers and the Economics of Retirement

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075: Kate Bahn on Monopsony in the Market for Teachers and the Economics of Retirement

Kate Bahn is an economist at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.Kate Bahn Economic Rockstar 2

Kate is also the co-founder and managing editor of Lady Economist, an amazing blog with rich content on how economics impacts women and girls.

Kate’s economics writing has been featured in the Guardian, the Nation, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Good Magazine among others.

She is also an active member of the International Association for Feminist Economics.

Kate received her PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research, where she also worked as a researcher for the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.

Kate’s scholarly research includes labor economics, gender in the economy, caring labor, and retirement.

Influencers:

Julie Nelson and Nancy Folbre

Economics:

In this episode, Kate mentions and discusses: monopsony, rents, labor markets, deadweight loss, retirement and risk aversion.

Economists:

In this episode, Kate mentions and discusses: Justin Wolfers, Nancy Folbre, Marina Adshade, Julie Nelson, Joan Robinson and Mesude Kongar 

In this episode you will learn:

  • what is a monopsony market
  • why early-career teachers leave their profession within the first five years.
  • about the International Association for Feminist Economics.
  • about the economics of retirement.
  • whether women are more risk averse than men or whether it is gender-stereotyping.
  • which US President should be removed from a US bill and what female should replace him.
  • and much more.

Research by Kate Bahn:

  • Bahn, Kate. (2015, July 17). Monopsony in Caring Labor: Job Search Models with Care as a Job Characteristic. Annual Conference of the International Association of Feminist Economics.
  • Bahn, Kate. (2013, July 10). Monopsony in Caring Labor: Estimating Labor Supply Elasticity of Teachers. Annual Conference of the International Association of Feminist Economics.
  • Bahn, Kate. (2013, January 5). Early Career Teachers and Gender Effects of Labor Market Decisions: Duration Analysis of the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study. Panel of the International Association of Feminist Economics at the American Social Science Academy Annual Conference.
  • Ghilarducci, Teresa, Saad-Lessler, Joelle, & Bahn, Kate. “Are U.S. Workers Ready for Retirement?” Journal of Pension Benefits. Winter (2015).

Other Writings:

Joseph Stiglitz taught me how to date by Kate Bahn

Books:

  • Invisible Heart by Nancy Folbre
  • Feminism, Objectivity and Economics by Julie Nelson
  • Angry Grad by Leah Bell

Podcast Episodes:

Papers:

Conference:

Where to Find Kate:

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058: Morten Jerven on Poor Numbers and Why Economists Get It Wrong With Africa

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058: Morten Jerven on Poor Numbers and Why Economists Get It Wrong With Africa

Morton Jerven is Professor of Economic History and Development at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2014, Morton was appointed Associate Professor in Global Change and International Relations at Noragrica at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Morton has published widely on African economic development, and particularly on patterns of economic growth and on economic development statistics.

Upon the release of his book, Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It, Morton caused uproar across Africa and had been expelled from two conferences. His latest book Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong is now available on Amazon.

Morton is an economic historian, with an MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics.

Economics:

In this interview, Morten mentions: capital markets, sovereign bonds, National Income Statistics, GDP, demographics, wages, rents, profits, consumption, investment, exports, imports, population growth, m-pesa, debt-to-GDP ratio, poverty and GDP per capita.

Economists:

In this interview, Morten mentions: Jonathan Temple, Stephen Durlauf, Simon Johnson, Shanta Deverajan, Neil Fantom (World Bank) and Wolfgang Stolper.

In this episode you will learn:

  • why Morten was expelled from two conferences in Africa.
  • about the knowledge problem that exists in economic statistical data.
  • if economic statistics is underfunded relative to other social sciences.
  • whether economic data from African countries is intentionally misleading or if it’s a methodology and availability problem.
  • what is GDP and why is it used.
  • the problems with measuring GDP.
  • why the production approach is really the only valid method to measuring GDP.
  • why a country’s GDP is estimate by proxy and how productivity data is difficult to collect.
  • how population growth is used as a proxy for GDP.
  • whether we should allow Google and other companies that store big data to provide economic data.
  • whether cooperation or conflict between big data and official statistics will emerge.
  • how observing the brightness of countries from space is now being used to measure economic growth.
  • what the IMF does to missing data, such as GDP.
  • why Morten collected his own data for a number of African countries since the IMF wouldn’t share their own.
  • whether papers written by the IMF and the World Bank undergo a peer-review process.
  • how the ‘branding’ of statistics by the World Bank and the IMF can mislead the user.
  • how using the 3 methods of calculating GDP for all African countries shows significant differences when ranking each from poorest to wealthiest.

Quotes by Morten Jerven:

Statistics is the archetypal way of generalising from complex social realities to a very orderly aggregate picture – Morten Jerven

Make everything count. If you write something, make sure it’s going somewhere. If you prepare a lecture to speak about something, make sure you have an idea about how that can become a publishable unit – Morten Jerven

Make sure, as an academic working, it’s important not to think that working long hours is the key to being effective. Start writing early. It’s important – Morten Jerven

Organisations Mentioned in this Episode:

Books:

Papers/Articles:

Resources:

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