#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/1/25

We had one more warm day in Boston, and while getting some sun I was able to listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the National Bureau of Economic Research gender in the economy symposium. I particularly liked the talk by Clémentine VAN EFFENTERRE on how face to face interaction influences gender bias in job interviews https://www.youtube.com/live/t2nR6SZvht8?si=ExvnQ7VGkFT32eoF

Next was “Myth America,” edited by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer. This is a great starter pack of introductions to a variety of understudied US historical topics. The different essays can be read independently, and as many of the authors have written entire books on the topics they cover you can easily follow up on topics of interest. I would've liked a conclusion tying together these different analyses, but overall this is still a great volume. Highly recommend https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kevin-m-kruse/myth-america/9781541604667/?lens=basic-books

Last was “The Problem of 12” by John Coates. This is a thought-provoking treatise on the growth of the index fund and private equity industries and the implications for corporate governance and democracy. Most of the dangers here are anecdotal and hypothetically posed rather than empirically tested, and since I'm familiar with the economics literature on the impact of PE firms I didn't find those sections convincing (admittedly I am biased). That being said these are ideas here that folks in the industry need to take seriously https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/the-problem-of-twelve/