Michael Kremer is best known for his academic work researching global poverty, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2019 along with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. Less known is that he is also the founder of five non-profits and in the process of creating a sixth. And Kremer doesn’t see anything unusual about embodying the dual archetypes of economist and founder. “I think there's a lot of relationship between the experimental method and the things that are needed to help found organizations,” he explains.
Michael joined Tyler to discuss the intellectual challenge of founding organizations, applying methods from behavioral economics to design better programs, how advanced market commitments could lower pharmaceutical costs for consumers while still incentivizing R&D, the ongoing cycle of experimentation every innovator understands, the political economy of public health initiatives, the importance of designing institutions to increase technological change, the production function of new technologies, incentivizing educational achievement, The Odyssey as a tale of comparative development, why he recently transitioned to University of Chicago, what researchers can learn from venture capitalists, his current work addressing COVID-19, and more.
Follow us on Twitter and IG: @cowenconvos
Email: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Newsletter
Claudia Goldin on the Economics of Inequality
Amia Srinivasan on Utopian Feminism
David Cutler and Ed Glaeser on the Health and Wealth of Cities
Zeynep Tufekci on the Sociology of The Moment (Live)
Andrew Sullivan on Braving New Intellectual Journeys
Niall Ferguson on Why We Study History
Alexander the Grate on Life as an NFA
Richard Prum on Birds, Beauty, and Finding Your Own Way
Elijah Millgram on the Philosophical Life
David Deutsch on Multiple Worlds and Our Place in Them
Mark Carney on Central Banking and Shared Values
Pierpaolo Barbieri on Latin American FinTech
Daniel Carpenter on Smart Regulation
Shadi Bartsch on the Classics and China
Dana Gioia on Becoming an Information Billionaire
Sarah Parcak on Archaeology from Space
John Cochrane on Economic Puzzles and Habits of Mind
Patricia Fara on Newton, Scientific Progress, and the Benefits of Unhistoric Acts
Brian Armstrong on the Crypto Economy
Benjamin Friedman on the Origins of Economic Belief
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast