#AcademicRunPlaylist - 5/2/25

The temperature was all over the place today, but I still had a nice run while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an informative talk by Sarah Dickerson on the latest BLS employment report and the state of the US economy overall at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU0kX0758sI

Next was an intriguing talk by Roger Hosein on how to foster economic growth in Trinidad and Tobago at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus https://youtu.be/qvm8qb7hjxE?si=dBP6jmfaBtFyXrWJ&t=1396

Next was the first day of the 2025 Journal of Accounting Research conference. I highly recommend the talk by Bradford (Lynch) Levy on numerical reasoning and look-ahead bias in AI models. Levy introduces clever, rigorous tests to expose the still extremely shallow, brittle nature of generative AI systems https://www.youtube.com/live/c_ADPwqz20U?si=UkD6-RUAxnzj6e0X&t=4011

Next was an excellent talk by Daron Acemoglu on institutions, technology, and prosperity at CASBS at Stanford. Acemoglu reviews his important work on comparative development and colonialism's effects, ending with consideration of the role of technology in driving reductions in satisfaction with democracy. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOrFXr3ApJc

Last was "American Apartheid" by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton. This book takes a sociological and philosophical perspective on the role of America's exclusionary housing policies in driving continued segregation and low socio-economic mobility for Black people in the US through the early 1990s. It shows that this book is ~30 years old - cringe-inducing statements around racial differences, a lack of quantitative rigor to back up sweeping statements made about different ethnic groups, etc. Read this book for the legal and policy history, which is much deeper and richer than I've seen in most other books on this topic https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674018211