New Books in Economics

Marshall Poe

Episodes

Mentioned books

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Apr 2, 2026 • 51min

Avner Greif et al., "Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Guido Tabellini, Intesa Sanpaolo Chair in Political Economics and Bocconi University leader, explores why Europe surged ahead of China. He contrasts European corporations like guilds and monasteries with Chinese clan networks. Short, sharp takes cover culture vs geography, how organizations shaped cooperation, and why these paths affected innovation and state power.
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Apr 2, 2026 • 43min

What's Global about Sven Beckert's Capitalism (Paul Kramer, JP)

Sven Beckert, Harvard historian of global capitalism, and Paul Kramer, Vanderbilt historian of empire and labor, discuss capitalism’s long global roots. They chart key ruptures, the state’s role in money and markets, the late-19th-century turning point, and how coercion and resistance shape capitalist development.
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Mar 29, 2026 • 38min

Kristin Ciupa, "The Political Economy of Oil in Venezuela: Class Conflict, the State, and the World Market" (Brill, 2026)

Kristin Ciupa, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Regina and author of a new book on Venezuela’s oil political economy. She traces Venezuela from a coffee-based agrarian past to oil discovery, nationalization, the Punto Fijo era, Chávez’s rise, and the limits of rent-based projects. The conversation covers class conflict, state form, OPEC, sanctions, and the 2026 hydrocarbons law.
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13 snips
Mar 27, 2026 • 1h 25min

Dovev Lavie, "The Cooperative Economy: A Solution to Societal Grand Challenges" (Routledge, 2023)

Dovev Lavie, a strategy professor and author, outlines a digital, community-driven cooperative economy to tackle inequality, platform power, data loss, and overconsumption. He discusses algorithmic price subsidization, consumption and profit limits, privacy-preserving income categories, local prioritization, and how a voluntary platform could scale community by community.
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Mar 25, 2026 • 1h 9min

Sarah Jaffe, "Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone" (Bold Type Books, 2021)

Sarah Jaffe, journalist and labor reporter who studies work and movements. She explores how framing jobs as a “labor of love” rationalizes low pay and long hours. She traces work becoming central to identity, the devaluation of care and creative labor, precarity in academia and tech, and how organizing and collective action could reframe work and justice.
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Mar 22, 2026 • 32min

Elizabeth Mitchell Elder, "Company Towns: Industry Power and the Historical Foundations of Public Mistrust" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

Elizabeth Mitchell Elder, a political scientist at the Hoover Institution, studies how mining shaped local politics. She discusses coal’s role in weakening municipal capacity and privatizing services. She recounts historical corruption, persistent local mistrust of government, party realignment in coal regions, and surprising mid-century outmigration that reshaped political life.
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Mar 22, 2026 • 50min

Stephen G. Brooks, "The Political Economy of Security" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Stephen G. Brooks, Dartmouth professor and author of The Political Economy of Security, explores how economic forces shape war, terrorism, and civil conflict. He details sixteen economic pathways, shows why trade and development can both calm and inflame violence, and revives Adam Smith’s broad lens. Practical policy ideas and calls for dedicated economic-security teams round out the conversation.
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46 snips
Mar 16, 2026 • 1h 7min

César A. Hidalgo, "The Infinite Alphabet: And the Laws of Knowledge" (Allen Lane, 2026)

César A. Hidalgo, physicist and scholar of economic complexity and collective learning. He describes an 'infinite alphabet' of fragmented knowledge and its three laws: how knowledge grows over time, diffuses across space, and gains value when bundled. Stories range from failed knowledge cities to China's grassroots innovation and why procedural know-how travels differently than facts.
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19 snips
Mar 6, 2026 • 60min

Bryan Caplan's Case Against Education

Bryan Caplan, economist and George Mason professor known for work on the economics of education, makes a provocative case that most schooling mainly signals ability rather than teaches job skills. He discusses earnings data, the sheepskin effect, credential inflation, vocational alternatives, and how AI and COVID revealed wasted coursework. Short, sharp takes on who should attend college and how to raise standards.
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Mar 2, 2026 • 35min

Jessi Streib, "The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

Jessi Streib, Associate Professor of Sociology at Duke University and author studying how luck shapes hiring and earnings. She introduces the idea of "luckocracy" and explains how hidden information and class-neutral hiring practices can equalize pay. Discussion covers methods following business students, how luck persists after hiring, colleges’ role in credentialing, and tradeoffs of a luck-driven labor market.

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