From APM, American Public Media, and WNYC,

this is Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace.

Here's the host of Marketplace, Jeremy Hobson.

This is Marketplace, I'm Jeremy Hobson.

It is Freakonomics time.

Every two weeks we talk with Stephen Dubner,

the co-author of the books and blog about the hidden side

of everything Stephen is good to have you back.

Hey, thank you Jeremy. I would like to talk to you today

if I may about bosses and how much they actually matter.

Alright, bosses, how much do they matter?

Well, here's the thing. We know that a bad boss is a drag,

but in terms of how good a good boss can be

and how that translates into productivity,

it sounds like an easy question, but it's not.

It takes an economist to dig into it.

Here's Stanford economist Ed Lazier.

Suppose you look at a firm and you see that the firm is highly productive.

Well, it may be highly productive because it has productive workers,

because it has productive technology,

or because it has good supervisors that are enhancing

the productivity of the workers.

...