Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers on Happiness, Growth, and the Reinhart-Rogoff Controversy

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2013

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, of the University of Michigan talk with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about their work on the relationship between income and happiness. They argue that there is a positive relationship over time and across countries between income and self-reported measures of happiness. The second part of the conversation looks at the recent controversy surrounding work by Reinhart and Rogoff on the relationship between debt and growth. Stevenson and Wolfers give their take on the controversy and the lessons for economists and policy-makers. This conversation was recorded shortly before Betsey Stevenson was nominated to the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.3	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is maladykontalk.org, we'd love to hear from you.
0:32.8	Today is May 28, 2013, and my guests are Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolffers.
0:38.8	Betsy is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, and she
0:43.2	was the chief economist at the Department of Labor.
0:46.0	Justin Wolffers is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of economics
0:49.9	and public policy at the University of Michigan.
0:52.0	Betsy and Justin welcomed the Econ Talk.
0:54.6	It's great to be here.
0:55.8	It's good to finally talk to us.
0:57.6	Now, you are my first pair of guests on econ talk.
1:00.9	It's going to be exciting to see how that goes.
1:02.4	You guys are going to have to share the mic.
1:04.7	We're going to talk about a number of issues today.
1:06.4	We're going to start with research that you've done together on the relationship
1:10.1	between happiness and income.
1:12.0	Then we're going to talk about a column you wrote on the work of Reinhardt and Rogoff.
	...

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