The Work Goes On

Bob Gregory, Professor Emeritus at the Research School of Economics at Australian National University, joins the podcast to discuss how getting polio at fourteen years old affected his life trajectory, why he fell in love with economics, and his many contributions as a public servant.

Sir Stephen John Nickell, Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, joins the podcast to discuss his many mentors at the London School of Economics (LSE), how an invite to meet Gordon Brown in Aspen helped put a labor economist on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and his lasting impact on the field of labor economics and economic policy in the UK.

In this episode, Nickell and Ashenfelter discuss:

Robert Willis, Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Michigan, joins the podcast to discuss his time as a seaman working the Washington State Ferries, his path to economics, and the origins of the Health and Retirement Study at the University of Michigan

Robert Pollak, the Hernreich Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the Washington University in St. Louis, joins the podcast to discuss his work modeling economic decisions and bargaining within families and how he and his wife, an English professor and American poetry scholar, navigated the “two career problem.”

Bruno Contini, Professor Emeritus of the University of Turin and Honorary Fellow of the Collegio Carlo Alberto, joins the podcast to discuss his childhood under fascism, his experience studying and teaching in the United States, and his expertise on Italian labor markets.