Freakonomics Radio

So you want to help people? That’s great — but beware the law of unintended consequences. Three stories from the modern workplace.    * SOURCES: * Joshua Angrist [https://economics.mit.edu/people/faculty/josh-angrist], professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. * Zoe Cullen [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=879471], professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. * Marina Gertsberg [https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/955361-marina-gertsberg], senior lecturer in finance at the University of Melbourne.   * RESOURCES: * "Is Pay Transparency Good? [https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.38.1.153]" by Zoë Cullen (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2024). * "DP18969 Economics Coauthorships in the Aftermath of MeToo [https://cepr.org/publications/dp18969]," by Noriko Amano-Patino, Elisa Faraglia, and Chryssi Giannitsarou (CEPR Discussion Paper, 2024). * "The Underground Economy of Company Reviews [https://www.careerfair.io/company-reviews#intro]," by Shikhar Sachdev (Career Fair, 2023). * "Why Did Gender Wage Convergence in the United States Stall? [https://www.nber.org/papers/w30821]" by Peter Q. Blair and Benjamin Posmanick (NBER Working Paper, 2023). * "The Unintended Consequences of #MeToo: Evidence from Research Collaborations [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4105976]," by Marina Gertsberg (SSRN, 2022). * "Outsourcing Tasks Online: Matching Supply and Demand on Peer-to-Peer Internet Platforms [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=58450]," by Zoë Cullen and Chiara Farronato (Management Science, 2021). * "Equilibrium Effects of Pay Transparency [https://zcullen.github.io/assets/docs/w28903_3cf6cf0c-f05e-4665-a638-61986faa4c50.pdf]," by Zoe B. Cullen and Bobak Pakzad-Hurson (NBER Working Paper, 2021). * "How Much Does Your Boss Make? The Effects of Salary Comparisons [https://www.nber.org/papers/w24841]," by Zoë Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia (NBER Working Paper, 2018). * "Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women at All Cost [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-03/a-wall-street-rule-for-the-metoo-era-avoid-women-at-all-cost?sref=6DPKmIax]," by Gillian Tan and Katia Porzecanski (Bloomberg, 2018). * "A Comprehensive Analysis of the Effects of US Disability Discrimination Laws on the Employment of the Disabled Population [https://www.nber.org/programs-projects/projects-and-centers/retirement-and-disability-research-center/center-papers/drc-nb16-07]," by Patrick Button, Philip Armour, and Simon Hollands (NBER Working Paper, 2016). * "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/322836]," by Daron Acemoglu and Joshua Angrist (Journal of Political Economy, 2001).

The psychologist Daniel Kahneman — a Nobel laureate and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — recently died at age 90. Along with his collaborator Amos Tversky, he changed how we all think about decision-making. The journalist Michael Lewis told the Kahneman-Tversky story in a 2016 book called The Undoing Project. In this episode, Lewis explains why they had such a profound influence.   * SOURCE: * Michael Lewis [http://michaellewiswrites.com/index.html#], writer.   * RESOURCES: * The Undoing Project [https://amzn.to/3JhDK0H], by Michael Lewis (2016). * Thinking, Fast and Slow [https://amzn.to/4autG0j], by Daniel Kahneman (2011). * The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine [https://amzn.to/3vPCm2d], by Michael Lewis (2010). * Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness [https://amzn.to/3VSgXjD], by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2009). * Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game [https://amzn.to/3Ue5nOt], by Michael Lewis (2004). * “Who’s On First [https://newrepublic.com/article/61123/whos-first],” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (New Republic, 2003). * “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice [http://psych.hanover.edu/classes/cognition/papers/tversky81.pdf],” by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (Science, 1981). * “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk [https://www.princeton.edu/~kahneman/docs/Publications/prospect_theory.pdf],” by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (Econometrica, 1979). * “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases [http://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teaching/Tversky_Kahneman_1974.pdf],” by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (Science, 1974). * “Subjective Probability: A Judgment of Representativeness [http://datacolada.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Kahneman-Tversky-1972.pdf],” by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (Cognitive Psychology, 1972).   * EXTRAS: * "Remembering Daniel Kahneman [https://freakonomics.com/podcast/remembering-daniel-kahneman/]," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024). * "Why Are People So Mad at Michael Lewis? [https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-people-so-mad-at-michael-lewis/]" by Freakonomics Radio (2023). * "Did Michael Lewis Just Get Lucky with 'Moneyball'? [https://freakonomics.com/podcast/did-michael-lewis-just-get-lucky-with-moneyball/]" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

People who are good at their jobs routinely get promoted into bigger jobs they’re bad at. We explain why firms keep producing incompetent managers — and why that’s unlikely to change.   * SOURCES: * Nick Bloom [https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/bio], professor of economics at Stanford University. * Katie Johnson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/datakatie/], freelance data and analytics coach. * Kelly Shue [https://som.yale.edu/faculty/kelly-shue], professor of finance at the Yale University School of Management. * Steve Tadelis [https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/tadelis-steven/], professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.   * RESOURCES: * “People Management Skills, Employee Attrition, and Manager Rewards: An Empirical Analysis [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/711409],” by Mitchell Hoffman and Steven Tadelis (Journal of Political Economy, 2021). * “Promotions and the Peter Principle [https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/134/4/2085/5550760],” by Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2019). * “Bosses Matter: The Effects of Managers on Workers’ Performance [https://wol.iza.org/articles/bosses-matter-the-effects-of-managers-on-workers-performance/long],” by Kathryn L. Shaw (IZA World of Labor, 2019). * “The Value of Bosses [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/681097],” by Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw, and Christopher T. Stanton (Journal of Labor Economics, 2015). * The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong [https://amzn.to/3MltnJp], by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull (1969).   * EXTRAS: * “The Secret Life of C.E.O.s [https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/the-secret-life-of-c-e-o-s/]” series by Freakonomics Radio. * “What Does a C.E.O. Actually Do? [https://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-does-a-c-e-o-actually-do/]” by Freakonomics Radio (2018).

Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope.   * SOURCES: * Fareed Zakaria [https://fareedzakaria.com/about], journalist and author.   * RESOURCES: * Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present [https://amzn.to/49s0Goy], by Fareed Zakaria (2024). * "The Ultimate Election Year: All the Elections Around the World in 2024 [https://time.com/6550920/world-elections-2024/]," by Koh Ewe (TIME, 2023). * "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism [https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/williamson/files/tea_party_pop.pdf]," by Vanessa Williamson, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin (Perspectives on Politics, 2011). * The Post-American World [https://amzn.to/4alDZnc], by Fareed Zakaria (2008). * The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad [https://amzn.to/3vK7v72], by Fareed Zakaria (2003).   * EXTRAS: * "Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? [https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-the-u-s-really-less-corrupt-than-china/]" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

The political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test Americans’ knowledge — so, to wrap up our special series on immigration [https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/the-true-story-of-americas-supremely-messed-up-immigration-system], we called some Freakonomics Radio listeners and quizzed them.   * SOURCES: * Zeke Hernandez [http://zekehernandez.net/], professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.   * RESOURCES: * The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers [https://amzn.to/43k5D1s], by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order).   * EXTRA: * “The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System [https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/the-true-story-of-americas-supremely-messed-up-immigration-system/],” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024).