The New Bazaar

As a young man in his native Benin, Leonard Wantchekon was arrested for leading a student uprising against the repressive government, tortured in prison, and 18 months later escaped from prison into Nigeria.

Nearly four decades later, he is now a Princeton economist and the founder of the African School of Economics. But the experiences and observations from his astonishing early life embedded themselves into his work in economics—not just his research, but his mission to educate a new generation of African economists.

Leonard speaks with Cardiff about those formative events, and then they discuss the following research papers published by Leonard:

— “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin” [Co-authored with Marko Klasˇnja and Natalija Novta]

— “The Curse of Good Soil? Land Fertility, Roads, and Rural Poverty in Africa” [Co-authored with Piero Stanig]

— “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa” [Co-authored with Nathan Nunn]

And they also discuss Leonard's goals as founder of The African School of Economics, and why it's so important for African students economists to be taken more seriously inside the economics profession.

Related links:

• Leonard Wantchekon page at Princeton
• IMF profile
• Economist profile

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When people talk about the crisis at the border between the US and Mexico, what specifically are they referring to?

The Department of Homeland Security keeps track of a statistic called “border encounters” at the US border with Mexico. This includes primarily the large number of people who try to cross the border without documentation, or illegally, and aren't crossing at a formal port of entry. It also includes people who do try to cross the border at a port of entry but who are then found not eligible to be admitted into the US.

In the past three years, under the Biden administration, the number of these border encounters each year has been more than quadruple the average of what it was throughout most of the previous decade, under the Trump and Obama administrations.

The system for processing all these migrants has been entirely overwhelmed. And if you’re a politician or a pundit or someone else pushing an agenda, the temptation is to make it political. To argue that this is either all Joe Biden’s fault for being "too soft" on immigration, or the fault of Donald Trump for not fixing the problem sooner, or Congress for refusing to collaborate on a bill that would address the issue.

Today’s guest does something different altogether. Andrew Selee is the head of the Migration Policy Institute, or MPI, which is the think tank Cardiff turns to when he wants factual, nonpartisan, non-stupid commentary on immigration—but especially when he just wants to inform himself on the topic outside the nonsense of how debates on immigration tend to play out in public.

So Cardiff speaks with Andrew about the real, fundamental reasons behind the crisis at the border, and what can be done about it.

They also talk about legal immigration, which despite many problems has actually been a kind of quiet success of recent years.

Other topics they discuss include the two eras of border management, the multi-layered effects of the pandemic on immigration, and a new idea for how to reform immigration to become more responsive to the needs of the US labor market.

Related links:

• Biden at the Three-Year Mark
• Shifting Realities at the U.S.-Mexico Border
• Migration at the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Challenge Decades in the Making
• A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa

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Martha Gimbel and Gopi Shah Goda were formerly economists within the White House Council of Economic Advisors, or CEA.

They look back on their time inside an important economic policymaking institution, telling Cardiff about:

• Their favorite projects
• Toughest assignments
• The relationship between CEA and other economic policymakers
• The difference between academia and policy work
• What they might change about it
• Common misconceptions about the work of economists

And Martha clears up a big misunderstanding about an infamous graph controversy. All this and more!

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At least rhetorically, the politically conservative approach to economics was once associated with lower taxes, deregulation of the economy, cutting government spending, free trade and cutting the budget deficit (In reality, what conservatives have actually done when they have been in power has been different, but that was the governing philosophy). But all that seems to have changed in the last roughly half decade. There’s been a lingering and visible tension between the old-school free-market-y conservatism, and a different “populist” approach that’s largely, though not exclusively, associated with Donald Trump. And that tension has made it hard to answer the question: “What is conservative economics now?” If, or when, Republicans are in power again, what policies will they pursue? What will conservative pundits and policymakers and economists advise them to do?

Cardiff has no idea anymore. So he invited Karl Smith, an economist and columnist at Bloomberg, to the show. Together they discuss how conservative economics has shifted on the issues of trade, immigration, the deficit, entitlement spending, and more.

Links from the episode:

• Karl is on Twitter at @karlbykarlsmith
• Karl Smith’s articles at Bloomberg (https://tinyurl.com/cxd9vpym)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

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Angus Deaton—Scottish immigrant, Nobelist, and one of Cardiff's favorite economists—has written a new, forthcoming book titled Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explore the Land of Inequality.

It’s great, if also hard to categorize.

Partly it’s a memoir, about his humble origins in Scotland, where he was born; his studies at Cambridge with better-heeled peers; and his subsequent decades as a Princeton University, Nobel Prize winning economist.

The book is also partly a reflection on a lifetime of practicing economics, and the good and bad of the economics profession. There's plenty of both.

And finally it’s a series of observations about the American economy, including a fascinating self-analysis of his own ambivalence towards the US, his adopted country—the many great things here, including the lives that he and his family have led; and also, yes, some of the devastatingly grim things about life here for so many others.

Related links:

• Economics in America, by Angus Deaton (available for pre-order)
• The Great Escape, by Angus Deaton
• Mortality and the economy, featuring Anne Case and Angus Deaton

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