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Conversations with Tyler / episode intelligence

Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator

5 Jun 2019 29 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Russ RobertsTyler Cowen

Claim mix

belief 15evaluation 5uncertainty 3preference 2commitment 2recommendation 1prediction 1

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The useful parts, with receipts.

29 published records

02 / belief

I could say, as an economist, there’s a lot of fun things in the Bible that tell us about incentives and behavior in ancient times. It’s an untapped area, I think.

“I could say, as an economist, there’s a lot of fun things in the Bible that tell us about incentives and behavior in ancient times. It’s an untapped area, I think.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

04 / belief

Later in my life — I was probably 50 or so — I realized a lot of Hayek is echoing this view that reason’s overrated, which is one way to summarize pragmatism in a sentence.

“Later in my life — I was probably 50 or so — I realized a lot of Hayek is echoing this view that reason’s overrated, which is one way to summarize pragmatism in a sentence.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

08 / uncertainty

Again, I don’t know what Smith really thought, but for me, when I think about how pleasant it is when someone says something nice about me, I try to discount it.

“Again, I don’t know what Smith really thought, but for me, when I think about how pleasant it is when someone says something nice about me, I try to discount it.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

14 / belief

Circle’s a concept. And yet the idea that it’s out there, this human creation, a mathematical definition, is a very powerful, I think, influence on our thinking still.

“Circle’s a concept. And yet the idea that it’s out there, this human creation, a mathematical definition, is a very powerful, I think, influence on our thinking still.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

15 / belief

A recent article — a recent book, I think; people are writing about that book — I think the author is Ann Harrison — are making the point that in the old days, psychiatrists had this model that mental illness was a chemical imbalance, and this drug — this psychiatric attempt to fix it — repairs the imbalance.

“A recent article — a recent book, I think; people are writing about that book — I think the author is Ann Harrison — are making the point that in the old days, psychiatrists had this model that mental illness was a chemical imbalance, and this drug — this psychiatric attempt to fix it — repairs the imbalance.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

16 / belief

In particular, the bailouts that we did of past failed financial institutions, I think, encouraged lenders to be more careless with how they lent their money, mainly to other institutions, not so much to people out in the world like you and me.

“In particular, the bailouts that we did of past failed financial institutions, I think, encouraged lenders to be more careless with how they lent their money, mainly to other institutions, not so much to people out in the world like you and me.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

17 / belief

Mishpatim is the section in the Jewish calendar. But I look at that as a Coasean, and I look at how there’s some aspects of the rewards and punishments in that area that are a little bit puzzling, and I think Coase helps me understand that.

“Mishpatim is the section in the Jewish calendar. But I look at that as a Coasean, and I look at how there’s some aspects of the rewards and punishments in that area that are a little bit puzzling, and I think Coase helps me understand that.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

20 / evaluation

We don’t have a political home for our ideas, and I think the intellectual home has failed badly for our inability to make the case, either for liberty in and of itself, and to understand how and why people who are being left behind by our economy, and what policies might help them.

“We don’t have a political home for our ideas, and I think the intellectual home has failed badly for our inability to make the case, either for liberty in and of itself, and to understand how and why people who are being left behind by our economy, and what policies might help them.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

24 / evaluation

I will say that one of the things that I loved when I came to George Mason in 2003 was how happy people were to take a piece of behavioral economics and say, “Well, in this area, people don’t maybe work as rationally as in other areas, and therefore I could assume this, that, and the other.

“I will say that one of the things that I loved when I came to George Mason in 2003 was how happy people were to take a piece of behavioral economics and say, “Well, in this area, people don’t maybe work as rationally as in other areas, and therefore I could assume this, that, and the other.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

25 / evaluation

If the government just transfers, which is, I think, probably not so distortionary relative to doing stuff, maybe that’s okay. But I think government does a lot of stuff that means slower consumption for the rest of us, except the people who are the beneficiaries.

“If the government just transfers, which is, I think, probably not so distortionary relative to doing stuff, maybe that’s okay. But I think government does a lot of stuff that means slower consumption for the rest of us, except the people who are the beneficiaries.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

26 / commitment

I think there’s a tension there that most economists who, like you and I — I don’t know about you; I shouldn’t say you — but certainly I was a very strong proponent of the volunteer army.

“I think there’s a tension there that most economists who, like you and I — I don’t know about you; I shouldn’t say you — but certainly I was a very strong proponent of the volunteer army.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

27 / prediction

One is that my optimism, my cheery view of growth in the past isn’t just that we’ve mismeasured inflation. It’s that we’ve mismeasured the gains to the average American because of changes in household structure, for example, which I think is probably the most important fact.

“One is that my optimism, my cheery view of growth in the past isn’t just that we’ve mismeasured inflation. It’s that we’ve mismeasured the gains to the average American because of changes in household structure, for example, which I think is probably the most important fact.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

28 / commitment

Early on in EconTalk — not early on, but at some point in EconTalk — I realized I wanted to be open about my biases, and I discovered that by being open about my biases, I had to confront them a little bit because here I am, saying them out loud.

“Early on in EconTalk — not early on, but at some point in EconTalk — I realized I wanted to be open about my biases, and I discovered that by being open about my biases, I had to confront them a little bit because here I am, saying them out loud.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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