Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff copertina

Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff

Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff

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Economics Matters is a podcast hosted by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, one of the most influential economists in the world, a Global Economics Advisor, NY Times Best Selling Author, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., and Director of the Fiscal Analysis Center. In each episode, Professor Kotlikoff talks to experts about the power of economics in our modern day society. From personal finance and fiscal policy, to social security and income inequality, Economics Matters delves into much of the economic challenges of modern society.Economics Matters
Episodi
  • Why Africa’s Richest Opportunity Is Being Ignored by Wall Street

    Why Africa’s Richest Opportunity Is Being Ignored by Wall Street
    Oct 15 2026

    What if the biggest investment opportunity in the world is hiding in plain sight, and the reason no one is taking it is fear of the unknown?

    Theo Kocken spent two decades building Cardano into one of Europe’s most respected pension risk management firms. Then he walked away to fix something bigger: the broken financial infrastructure keeping billions of people in low-income countries from accessing the capital they need to grow.

    In this conversation, Professor Kotlikoff and Theo explore currency risk in developing markets, the mechanics of risk-sharing that could unlock trillions in private investment, and what a Monty Python filmmaker has to do with explaining the next financial crisis.

    What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

    [00:07:00] How Cardano was founded and why Theo left to focus on development finance
    [00:08:00] The Currency Exchange Fund (TCX): how it protects companies from devastating loan shocks in Africa and Asia
    [00:23:00] The real state of African development: why the GDP numbers don’t tell the whole story
    [00:29:00] ILX Fund: mobilizing pension capital alongside development banks for high-impact projects
    [00:37:00] Boom Bust Boom: the Monty Python-produced documentary on the human origins of financial crisis
    [00:43:00] Private credit and insurance risk: why today’s financial system may be setting up the next crisis

    Featured Guest:
    Theo Kocken is a professor of risk management at VU University Amsterdam and extraordinary professor at NWU University in South Africa. He is founder of Cardano, a leading pension risk management firm, and co-founder of Cardano Development, a not-for-profit focused on financial inclusion in low- and medium-income countries. He is also a founding force behind TCX (The Currency Exchange Fund) and ILX, and the producer of economic documentaries including Boom Bust Boom (2015) with Terry Jones of Monty Python.

    Resources Mentioned:

    • TCX: The Currency Exchange Fund
    • ILX Fund: AfDB Partnership
    • Boom Bust Boom Documentary (2015)
    • Cardano Development


    Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on Economics Matters are those of the authors and guests. These are not the opinions of Boston University or Economic Security Planning, Inc.
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • She Knew the Social Security Formula at 16. Now She's Warning Washington It Won't Save Itself

    She Knew the Social Security Formula at 16. Now She's Warning Washington It Won't Save Itself
    Sep 30 2026

    What does it mean when one of the country's leading labor economists, a former Obama White House advisor who served as chief economist at the Department of Labor, tells you that Washington's bet on AI saving Social Security is built on a foundation of wishful thinking, and that the real numbers have been pointing toward crisis since 2017?

    Betsey Stevenson studied physics at Wellesley, switched to economics because the marginal costs were lower, earned her PhD from Harvard, passed up a Michigan faculty offer to work in the private sector, wrote a brand-new job market paper from private sector data to re-enter academia, and eventually landed at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan — where she now teaches, researches, and co-authors a leading economics textbook with her partner Justin Wolfers.

    In this episode, Professor Kotlikoff sits down with Stevenson for a conversation covering the divorce law economics that launched her career, what Title IX actually proved about sports and upward mobility, how two economists navigate a two-career relationship, and a frank assessment of where the US economy is heading under the weight of deficits, AI hype, and a capital income tax structure that may be quietly turning America into a servant economy.


    What You'll Learn:

    • [00:10:39] Why Betsey passed up academia after Harvard and what working at Forrester Research taught her about big data before big data had a name
    • [00:11:00] The dissertation that launched her career: how unilateral divorce laws changed women's bargaining power inside marriage without changing the divorce rate at all
    • [00:17:00] The surprising finding: no-fault divorce dramatically reduced spousal violence but also reduced spouses putting each other through school
    • [00:22:16] The Title IX paper: how giving girls access to sports improved graduation rates, college attendance, and adult earnings using a natural experiment almost nobody had thought to use
    • [00:36:00] How Betsey knew the Social Security formula at 16 and why she called it a pure tax on her teenage paycheck
    • [00:40:31] Why the fiscal gap has been unsustainable since Trump's 2017 tax cuts, and how COVID made it dramatically worse
    • [00:42:33] Why cutting short-term interest rates when inflation is above target pushes long-term rates up: the mechanism Washington keeps ignoring
    • [00:46:13] Why AI productivity gains may flow entirely to capital rather than wages, and what that means for Social Security funding
    • [00:47:29] The servant economy scenario: with foreigners owning most US investment, AI returns could look a lot like Jamaica's resort economy
    • [01:04:33] Betsey's tax proposal: tax all income including unrealized capital gains, and why the Daniel Radcliffe vs. Johnny Depp analogy explains exactly why she opposes a wealth tax


    Featured Guest:

    Betsey Stevenson is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School. She earned her PhD from Harvard and served as Chief Economist of the US Department of Labor and as a Member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama. She is a Research Associate at NBER and co-author, with Justin Wolfers, of Principles of Economics.



    Resources:

    • Principles of Economics (3rd Ed.) by Stevenson and Wolfers: amazon.com
    • "Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law" — the divorce and domestic violence paper, QJE 2006: nber.org
    • "Beyond the Classroom" — the Title IX and sports earnings paper, ReStat 2010: nber.org
    • Betsey Stevenson's faculty page: fordschool.umich.edu/faculty/betsey-stevenson
    • Economics Matters Substack: larrykotlikoff.substack.com


    Economics Matters: The Podcast is hosted by Larry Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University.

    Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on Economics Matters are those of the authors and guests. These are not the opinions of Boston University or Economic Security Planning, Inc.
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    1 ora e 8 min
  • The Harvard Genius Mapping the Death of the American Dream — Zip Code by Zip Code

    The Harvard Genius Mapping the Death of the American Dream — Zip Code by Zip Code
    Sep 17 2026
    What if the single strongest predictor of whether a poor kid rises into the middle class has nothing to do with intelligence, work ethic, or even education, and everything to do with who happens to be in their classroom in third grade?Raj Chetty grew up in New Delhi, came to the US in fourth grade, emailed 15 Harvard professors his first week on campus, was working as a research assistant for Marty Feldstein within weeks, graduated college a year early, and became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard's history. He has since used anonymized tax records covering virtually every American to build the most detailed picture ever assembled of who gets ahead in this country, why, and what we could actually do about it.In this episode, Professor Kotlikoff sits down with his MacArthur Genius Fellow and John Bates Clark Medal-winning colleague for a conversation covering the grocery store experiment that upended tax theory, the kindergarten classroom that changes your earnings for life, the Facebook data revealing why Iowa produces more upward mobility than Atlanta, and a brand-new private capital market proposal that could finally align financial incentives with the American dream.What You'll Learn:[00:17:23] The grocery store experiment: do people respond differently to a price hike versus a tax hike of the same dollar amount, and what the answer reveals about policy design[00:18:28] Why your true marginal tax rate is nearly impossible to calculate, and why that matters enormously for how much people work and save[00:36:20] The key insight behind the kindergarten teacher paper: linking the 1980s Tennessee STAR experiment to adult tax records 25 years later[00:39:25] How kindergarten classroom assignment by coin flip changed the course of children's lives[00:40:09] One excellent teacher versus one average teacher: a 2 to 3% annual earnings gain per grade, compounding to a 20 to 25% lifetime wage difference[00:41:25] Why teacher quality beats class size as a policy lever, and why Finland and Switzerland get this right while the US does not[00:44:44] The Opportunity Atlas: type in your zip code and see what the American dream looks like in your own neighborhood[00:48:00] Why Dubuque, Iowa, produces more upward mobility than almost anywhere on earth while Charlotte and Atlanta rank below many developing countries for poor kids rising up[00:50:00] The single strongest predictor of economic mobility: not schools, not income, but cross-class friendship[00:53:00] The causal proof: kids randomly assigned to classrooms with more high-income peers go on to earn more and rise higher[00:56:00] The inventor gap[01:00:11] The digital twins method[01:03:31] The private capital market for opportunity: how a $10,000 investment in job training could generate double-digit investor returns while reducing inequalityFeatured Guest:Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Director of Opportunity Insights. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard and became one of the youngest tenured professors in the university's history. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, the John Bates Clark Medal, and the Harvard George Ledley Prize.Resources:Opportunity Insights: opportunityinsights.orgThe Opportunity Atlas: opportunityatlas.orgThe Social Capital Atlas: socialcapital.org"Social Capital I" (Nature, 2022): nature.com"Social Capital II" (Nature, 2022): nature.com"Where Is the Land of Opportunity?" (QJE, 2014): opportunityinsights.orgRaj Chetty's publications: rajchetty.com/publicationsEconomics Matters Substack: larrykotlikoff.substack.comEconomics Matters: The Podcast is hosted by Larry Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University.Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on Economics Matters are those of the authors and guests. These are not the opinions of Boston University or Economic Security Planning, Inc.
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    1 ora e 8 min
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