#AcademicRunPlaylist - 7/23/25

Author

Ben Waber
July 23, 2025

A moat around the Japanese Imperial Palace at the early evening, with the lit up skyscrapers of Tokyo looming beyond the illuminated white castle walls. Forest is on the far bank, while on the near bank short grass, some manicured bushes, and a line of trees hugs the shore, with bright yellow streetlights dotting the path at regular intervals.

It was another scorcher in Tokyo today, and while trying to determine the shortest outdoor route between my meetings I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the second day of the National Bureau of Economic Research labor studies conference. I particularly liked the talk by Marco G. Palladino on firms and the gender wage gap across countries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCkEHjCC3kI

Next was the last day of the NBER workshop on health and aging, with notable talks by Brian McGarry (nursing home staffing and care quality), Amanda Kreider (immigration enforcement effects on home care worker supply and care access😬), and René Karadakic (value of job specialization) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRMbeqFBWcI

Next was a pair of talk by Varun Kapoor (wage theft practices and causes in informal labor markets) and Carolyn Pelnik (microentrepreneur location and profitability) at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/25q7JDbAa3o?si=ndmWwT8GZ09qcFBP&t=5665

Last was a great talk by Katherine Richard on the labor supply and program enrollment effects of social safety net work requirement enforcement (tldr; basically everything is worse) at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/BrscaJQ3vJg?si=wxBZ0gbBllpMAe_B&t=3304