#AcademicRunPlaylist - 7/16/25

Author

Ben Waber
July 16, 2025

A selfie of me in front of the shiny metal sign for the Development Bank of Japan, with Japanese text above the English. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing glasses with thick black rims and a dark blue dress shirt.

I had lots of fascinating meetings today, and I especially enjoyed my conversations with the folks at the DBJ around evaluating management and investments using people data. As I walked between meetings I was also able to listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the second day of the National Bureau of Economic Research's conference on income and wealth, with notable talks by Tarikua Erda (disasters, capital, and productivity) and Simon Jäger (effects of hiring consulting firms) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHzR8Xp45B8

Next was a pair of talks by Hugo Lhuillier (local root of wage inequality) and Sergio Ocampo (modeling wealth inequality) at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/AUIIyL-P_P8?si=cPRCH2ruV2dp8OOE&t=15581

Next was a great talk by Benjamin Golub on innovation spillovers across US tech clusters at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/qWUylUEl_es?si=AHuzidandfmFbRmB&t=19418

Next was day 1 of the NBER conference on the labor market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPFk0lniVw

Last was a compelling discussion with Gad Weiss on pay-to-play clauses in VC deals on the Business Scholarship podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7lZt-9clM