Money & Macro Talks

Why have fertility rates collapsed in the past decades? Is there anything governments can do to reverse this situation? In this episode, we review the leading explanations for long-run demographic change, the role of smartphones, and the evidence for and against different policies aimed at boosting birth rates at the national level.

Frank Braconi is one of the few economists willing to argue that rent control, properly designed, can work. But what does "properly designed" mean? When should it be used, where, and how? We discuss San Francisco's decontrol-recontrol model and whether it can blunt the harms of gentrification.

As China's star rises, people like Ray Dalio think we may see the emergence of a new tribute system. In this podcast, I discuss with tribute system expert Dr. Dave Kang what the tribute system actually was and whether or not we can anticipate seeing it return.

Prime downtown land sits empty while cities run out of housing. Tax buildings and you punish building; tax land and you punish sitting on it. In this episode, Lars Doucet, author of Land is a Big Deal, discusses the history and relevance of land value taxes to prevent land speculation and address the housing affordability crisis.

What does sixty years of evidence actually say about rent control? Konstantin Kholodilin (DIW Berlin) read 112 empirical studies to find out. We go through the results.