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Conversations with Tyler

Abhijit Banerjee on Theory, Practice, and India

Conversations with Tyler

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.82.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2019

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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Long before Abhijit Banerjee won the 2019 economics Nobel with Michael Kremer and Esther Duflo, he was a fellow graduate student at Harvard with Tyler. For Tyler, Abhijit is one of the brightest economic minds he's ever met, and "a brilliant theorist who decided the future was with empirical work." But according to Abhijit, theory and practice go hand in hand: the real benefit of a randomized control trial isn't getting unbiased estimates, he says, but in testing hypotheses borne out of theory.

Abhijit joined Tyler to discuss his unique approach to economics, including thoughts on premature deindustrialization, the intrinsic weakness of any charter city, where the best classical Indian music is being made today, why he prefers making Indian sweets to French sweets, the influence of English intellectual life in India, the history behind Bengali leftism, the best Indian regional cuisine, why experimental economics is underrated, the reforms he'd make to traditional graduate economics training, how his mother's passion inspires his research, how many consumer loyalty programs he's joined, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded December 2nd, 2019

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi everyone, this is Tyler of Conversations with Tyler.

0:07.0

I hope you've enjoyed listening to and learning from this year's conversations as much as I

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have.

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For me, it's the single most rewarding and instructive thing I do.

0:16.8

This year, some of my absolute favorites have been, for instance, Neil Stevenson, talking

0:22.2

about science fiction, the future, and innovation, Masha Gesson, UnRussia and Putin, and the history

0:28.2

of communism.

0:29.5

Russ Roberts on Market Economics, Karl Knoeskard on Norway, Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian Art,

0:37.8

Emily Wilson on the Ancient Greeks, the Classics, and Homer's Odyssey.

0:43.0

If you've benefited from this podcast and enjoyed it, please consider making a financial

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0:55.8

All donations will go to the production of the show, including first, new conversations

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every other week, and note that unlike most other podcasts, we often have to pay to travel

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to our guests and we have never done a remote interview.

1:09.5

Second, live shows in Arlington, Virginia, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and

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more low cows to come.

1:17.9

Third, full readable transcripts of every episode enhanced with helpful links.

1:23.5

For me, doing ConversationsWithTyler is about learning from other people and teaching

1:29.0

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a wiser place.

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So if you believe in the power of learning through listening and reading as I do, please

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