Innovation + Equality with Dr Andrew Leigh MP

Australian economist and federal Member of Parliament Dr Andrew Leigh is interviewed about his new book with co-author Professor Joshua Gans Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future that is More Star Trek than Terminator, published by MIT Press in 2019. This wide-ranging conversation covers a range of issues, including labour market impacts of digital disruption, universal basic income, and how to improve teacher effectiveness, among other issues.Use these timestamps to jump right to the highlights:4:20 – impact of AI and automation on jobs9:50 – criticisms of Universal Basic Income – fiscal critique and the fact work brings meaning – in which Andrew mentions Blanchflower and Oswald study Wellbeing over time in Britain and the USA11:05 – Andrew advises young people not to over-specialise15:20 – innovation is generally good for the economy and society, so Andrew rejects Bill Gates’s robot tax idea (see this Business Insider article)19.05 – Gene asks Andrew about Nicholas Gruen’s idea about public private partnerships for digital public goods (e.g. listen to Economics Explained episode 7)24:00 – Andrew tells us how we can connect with him, including by listening to his Good Life podcast24:40 – discussion of how to improve teach effectiveness, in which Gene asks about teachers’ unions and performance-based/teacher merit pay; check out Andrew’s 2012 paper The economics and politics of teacher merit pay (NB Gene mangled the end of his question, but Andrew got the gist of it, thankfully)28:45 – Andrew proposes assessing teacher quality policy measures via Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) This episode was recorded on 20 January 2020 via Skype.