#AcademicRunPlaylist - 6/27/24

I think I'm getting acclimatized to the heat since I ran way farther than I thought I would and still felt good, which helped me enjoy listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Jakob Kapeller on the past and future of pluralism in economics at the Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism (CSEP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkbr8Kfai_s

Next was an excellent symposium on new economic thinking for new industrial strategies at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose with Mariana Mazzucato, Leslie Johnston, Carolina Alves, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, and Erika Kraemer-Mbula https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PPeSs6lJ3M

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Felipe Figueroa Zimmermann on the field of law and economics as a case of economics imperialism at the CSEP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lokU7mtHN80

Next was a great talk by Daniele Condorelli on buyer-optimal platform design (including a plug for his Airbnb-listed house in Sicily!) at the Toulouse School of Economics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijQm9-VmDHA

Next was a nice talk by Johannes Lenhard giving an ethnographic dive in the VC industry at CSEP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db4cSTn-7_U

Next was an important conversation with Michael Posner on corporate accountability for human rights, focusing on the recent Chiquita Banana case, on The Lawfare Institute podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnJBVnrjW9k

Next was an engaging talk by Merve Sancak on country-specific varieties of capitalism at the CSEP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-JiBqqHCc

Next was a fantastic talk by Richard Baldwin on the big shift in globalization at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance. Baldwin convincingly shows not only China's overwhelming dominance in the manufacturing trade space, but also how changes in trade are more driven by countries gradually focusing manufacturing production on internal needs. From this view, China is essentially converging with the US, as Japan and Germany did before it. There's a ton more here on the importance of services for future global trade and economic growth and the rapid decline of digital trade barriers (which are still very high). Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODYwU9ONidg

Next was a vital talk by Michael Ralph on insurance, slavery, and expertise at the Santa Fe Institute. Ralph dives into the financial instruments that developed alongside and supported/utilized slavery, with particular focus on how the expertise of enslaved people was valued in insurance contracts and the many implications of these practices for our understanding of US history and current social/financial systems. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7hJqrVn-Ag

Last was a compelling talk by Dan Fu on hardware-aware efficient primitives for machine learning at UW-Madison Computer Sciences. The first part of this talk is one of the most serious attempts I've seen to implement what has been implied by theory - replacing attention in transformers - with impressive results. Compute and data are all you need! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zZOoiH-b68