EconTalk on public pensions and on Big Pharma

I like listening to podcasts when commuting or when mountain biking. Economists may be interested in the interviews conducted by Russ Roberts for EconTalk. It is a nice way to busy your mind for one hour when your body is otherwise occupied. The range of subjects is quite large, covering all fields of economics. This being said, I find Russ Roberts pretty much biased (I would say conservatist --i.e., pretty much right wing at least as seen from France) and, not sharing his political views, I have found him  not always very cogent in his remarks and interventions...

This podcast illustrates both the interest of the series and its conservatist slant. It covers an interesting topic: public pensions in the US, namely the pensions paid to state public employees. I have learnt many things from this podcast (such as, for instance, that many state public employees are not covered by the federal social security program), but I have found some interpretations given totally outlandish. At some point (34 minutes into the discussion), both Roberts and the interviewee Josuah Rauh agree that the shortfall in the funding of such plans is a Threat to Civilization!

If you'd prefer a discussion with a more left-wing perspective, listen to Marcia Angell on Big Pharma. She is not an economist but rather a medical doctor who has served as editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. She talks about the impact of pharmaceutical companies on academic research, clinical trials and the political process. I have been most surprised by her contention that the large pharmaceutical companies produce little or no innovation but rather outsource this research to university labs. She also contends that they make an increasing amount of money doing this. If true, this means that academic researchers are very bad at extracting resources from the pharmaceutical companies to finance their research... I have no clue whether this is true and I am sure that applied economists must have looked at this. Please chip in if you have some reference to recommend!

You can check the list of EconTalk podcasts on http://www.econtalk.org/ . Each podcast is accompanied by a list of links to the materials cited in the discussion, and by highlights. You can of course subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes.