#AcademicRunPlaylist - 7/10/24

It was another hot one in Boston, but I was still able to briefly get out and listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was Tuesday's session of the National Bureau of Economic Research's Development of the American Economy conference. I highly recommend the whole day, and I particularly liked the talks by Peter Blair (the negative effect of FMLA on the gender wage gap), Ilyana Kuziemko (the impact of cold war spending on labor markets), and Junichi Yamasaki (how the release of daimyo estates at the start of the Meiji era shaped skyscraper development and productivity) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXLw2he2Zjk

Next was an important panel on the degree to which forced labor import bans raise supply chain labor standards at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford with Jennifer Gordon, Sofía González De Aguinaga, and Maayan Niezna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HRH9lTTAgI

Next was a great conversation with Lisa Ho on experiments to test whether flexible work arrangements can boost female labor force participation in India on the VoxDev podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vX1RTHMoGw

Next was a compelling panel on tort litigation against transnational companies for human rights and environmental abuses at the Oxford Faculty of Law with Ekaterina Aristova, Kate O'Regan, and Adrian Briggs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxKBqkVjXE

Next was Wednesday's session of the NBER Development of the American Economy conference, with notable talks by Ellora Derenoncourt (the historical incarceration earnings penalty in the US) and Carlo Medici (organized labor and immigration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER6xgEOK2iI

Next was an excellent talk by Melanie Mitchell on the challenge of getting AI to understand the world at UQAM | Université du Québec à Montréal. Mitchell takes a systematic approach to examining how different AI methods and more recent large models statistically capture aspects of their data, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses - and importantly how to rigorously evaluate "understanding" through the use of small perturbations and counterfactuals. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAJXedG5unw

Last was the final day of the NBER International Trade and Investment conference. I was very interested in the talks by Hugo Lhuillier (how cities affect learning, inequality, and productivity), Ben Faber* (gains from trade from rural-urban migration), and David Argente (cross-border product adoption) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l98VTra3Uus

*great name 😁