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Price Discrimination? Racial Discrimination?

…Could this price-discriminating advertisement in fact be construed as racial discrimination? If there’s a plausible argument to be made that tipping should be outlawed because blacks systematically earn less than…



Episode 480

How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy?

Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrimination is incredibly costly — to the victims, of course, but also the perpetrators. One modern…

Episode 480

How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy? (Replay)

Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940’s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrimination is incredibly costly — to the victims, of course, but also the perpetrators. One modern…

The Racial Tipping Point

…amount white passengers tipped. African-American passengers also seemed to participate in the racial discrimination against African-American drivers. While African-American passengers generally tipped less, on average they also tipped black drivers…



Episode 427

The Pros and Cons of Reparations

Most Americans agree that racial discrimination has been, and remains, a big problem. But that is where the agreement ends.

Episode 210

Is It Okay for Restaurants to Racially Profile Their Employees?

We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it’s served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense — and is…

Can Bail Bond Dealers Reduce Discrimination? A Guest Post

…regression showing significantly higher bail amounts for black defendants in our sample) constitute powerful market evidence of unjustified racial discrimination in bail setting. The market evidence indicates that judges in…



Episode 394

Does Hollywood Still Have a Princess Problem?

For decades, there’s been a huge gender disparity both on-screen and behind the scenes. But it seems like cold, hard data — with an assist from the actor Geena Davis…

Episode 210

Is It Okay for Restaurants to Racially Profile Their Employees? (Replay)

We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it’s served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense — and is…

How to End (Price) Discrimination

…type of discrimination we tend to associate with the treatment of African-Americans in the early 20th century. The second is called statistical discrimination, which is discrimination motivated by statistical trends…



Episode 426

Should America (and FIFA) Pay Reparations?

The racial wealth gap in the U.S. is massive. We explore the causes, consequences and potential solutions. Also: another story of discrimination and economic disparity, this one perpetrated by an…


Explaining the Black-White Wage Gap

…Jersey who sought employment for up to 12 weeks, the authors show that racial discrimination accounts for one-third of the wage difference. They also estimate that blacks have a 7…



Episode 317

What Can Uber Teach Us About the Gender Pay Gap?

The gig economy offers the ultimate flexibility to set your own hours. That’s why economists thought it would help eliminate the gender pay gap. A new study, using data from…

Episode 514

Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America

The controversial Harvard economist, recently back from a suspension, “broke a lot of glass early in my career,” he says. His research on school incentives and police brutality won him…

Episode 453

A Rescue Plan for Black America

New York Times columnist Charles Blow argues that white supremacy in America will never fully recede, and that it’s time for Black people to do something radical about it. In…

Episode 5

Can Outside Pressure Change Silicon Valley?

…rights. She is a senior campaign director for Color of Change. It’s a racial justice organization that blends traditional organizing efforts with an updated playbook for how to make change….

Episode 551

What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life?

In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why Moby-Dick is still worth reading. (Part 3 of “Everything You Never Knew About…

Episode 232

The True Story of the Gender Pay Gap

Discrimination can’t explain why women earn so much less than men. If only it were that easy.

Episode 232

A New Nobel Laureate Explains the Gender Pay Gap (Replay)

…of the Nobel Prize in Economics. We spoke with her in 2016 about why women earn so much less than men — and how it’s not all explained by discrimination….


Episode 144

What Should Be the Eighth Deadly Sin?

We asked you to nominate the worst sins of the modern age. Which one do Stephen and Angela think belongs on the list? And which does Angie struggle with the…

Episode 70

Why Are There Still So Few Female Surgeons?

Success and failure are hard to measure in medicine. Bapu looks at how surgeons are judged after a bad outcome — and whether men and women are treated the same….

Is Discrimination Against Latinos Getting More Costly?

…the case that discrimination against blacks and women over the past few decades became more socially unacceptable, and therefore more costly. Discrimination against the elderly and Latinos, meanwhile, is still…



Episode 3

Kerwin Charles: “One Does Not Know Where an Insight Will Come From”

The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many…

Episode 129

Should Tipping Be Banned?

It’s awkward, random, confusing — and probably discriminatory too.

Episode 129

Should Tipping Be Banned? (Replay)

It’s awkward, random, confusing — and probably discriminatory too.

Did Racism Cost Obama Votes in 2008?

…popular vote: Traditional surveys struggle to capture socially unacceptable attitudes such as racial animus. This paper uses Google searches including racially charged language as a proxy for a local area’s…



Episode 63

What Medicine Gets Wrong About Race

Some diagnostic tests give distorted results for Black patients. How are doctors trying to change that?…

Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing

Photo: ssalonso A new study of capital sentences handed down in first degree murder cases finds evidence of racial bias against minority defendants who killed white victims. The study (abstract…