Listen to Owen Bennett-Jones discuss the future of opinion polls with Mark Pack

New Books Network

About Peter Lorentzen

I am an economics professor at the University of San Francisco. I head our Applied Economics Master's program, which focuses on the digital economy. My own research is mainly on China's political economy.

Peter Lorentzen is economics professor at the University of San Francisco. He heads USF's Applied Economics Master's program, which focuses on the digital economy. His research is mainly on China's political economy.

Peter's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Peter:

Economics May 18, 2022

Streets of Gold

America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Immigration is one of the most fraught, and possibly most misunderstood, topics in American social discourse—yet, in most cases, the things we believe about immigration are based largely on myth …
Economics April 26, 2022

The Parent Trap

How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis

Nate G. Hilger

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers—parents—labor in isolation. If …
Economics April 15, 2022

How China Escaped Shock Therapy

The Market Reform Debate

Isabella M. Weber

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country's rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the …
Economics April 14, 2022

The Voltage Effect

How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale

John A. List

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Most economists would argue that policies and business strategies are most likely to succeed if they are evidence-based, with their efficacy demonstrated empirically by randomized controlled trials before they are …
Economics March 15, 2022

Invisible China

How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise

Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. But as Scott …
Economics March 10, 2022

Prototype Nation

China and the Contested Promise of Innovation

Silvia M. Lindtner

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation (Princeton University Press, 2020) reveals how a growing distrust in Western models of progress and development, including Silicon Valley and the …
Economics March 8, 2022

Shrewd Samaritan

Faith, Economics, and the Road to Loving Our Global Neighbor

Bruce Wydick

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
How can we each do our part to reduce inequality and help the poor, not just in our own communities but around the world? As a devout Christian, Bruce Wydick …
Economics February 16, 2022

The Power of Experiments

Decision Making in a Data-Driven World

Michael Luca and Max H. Bazerman

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Have you logged into Facebook recently? Searched for something on Google? Chosen a movie on Netflix? If so, you've probably been an unwitting participant in a variety of experiments—also known …
Economics November 19, 2021

Causal Inference

The Mixtape

Scott Cunningham

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Just about everyone knows correlation does not equal causation, and probably that a randomized controlled experiment is the best way to solve that problem, if you can do one. If …
Economics November 12, 2021

Constraining Dictatorship

From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes

Anne Meng

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Why do weak autocrats create strong autocracies? Using game-theoretic logic and an analysis of the post-colonial experience of sub-Saharan Africa, Anne Meng shows that by creating institutions that incorporate other …
Economics November 2, 2021

Data and the American Dream

Contemporary Social Controversies and the American Community Survey

Matthew J. Holian

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
How much do new building codes reduce energy usage? How much and it what ways does it matter for an immigrant to be able to work legally? How has the …
Economics October 6, 2021

Discovering Prices

Auction Design in Markets with Complex Constraints

Paul Milgrom

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Neoclassical economic theory shows that under the right conditions, prices alone can guide markets to efficient outcomes. But what if it it’s hard to find the right price? In many …
Economics October 5, 2021

Who Gets What -- and Why

The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design

Alvin E. Roth

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
In Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design (Mariner Books, 2015), Nobel Memorial Prize Winner Alvin Roth explains his pioneering work in the …
Economics August 26, 2021

Why Trust Matters

An Economist's Guide to the Ties That Bind Us

Benjamin Ho

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Do you trust corporations? Do you trust politicians? Do you trust the science? Does anyone trust anyone anymore? In Why Trust Matters: An Economist's Guide to the Ties That Bind Us …
Economics August 18, 2021

The Family Firm

A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years

Emily Oster

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
In The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years (Penguin, 2021), Brown University professor of economics and mom of two Emily Oster offers …
Economics August 11, 2021

Regime Threats and State Solutions

Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya

Mai Hassan

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
When trying to understand how to help countries escape poverty, economists initially focused on macro topics like inflation, government deficits, trade balances, and capital inflows. Later there was a shift …
Economics August 4, 2021

The Politics of Order in Informal Markets

How the State Shapes Private Governance

Shelby Grossman

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Property rights are important for economic exchange, but many governments don't protect them. Private market organizations can fill this gap by providing an institutional structure to enforce agreements, but with …
Economics July 29, 2021

Welfare for Autocrats

How Social Assistance in China Cares for Its Rulers

Jennifer Pan

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Development economists have been doing intensive research in recent years on conditional cash transfer programs as a tool to help get people out of poverty. Meanwhile in the US there …
Economics July 2, 2021

Toxic Politics

China's Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State

Yanzhong Huang

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Popular discussions of China’s growth prospects often focus on the success or failure specific industries. They might address the challenges rising wages pose to the export manufacturing sector, or the …
Economics June 18, 2021

Workers and Change in China

Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness

Manfred Elfstrom

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Post-socialist China has seen extensive labor unrest in the form of strikes, protests, and riots. The party-state has responded, sometimes with greater repression, sometimes with institutional changes to better channel …
Economics June 11, 2021

Playing by the Informal Rules

Why the Chinese Regime Remains Stable despite Rising Protests

Yao Li

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
In the developing world, political turmoil often brings an end to promising economic growth stories. During its period of rapid economic growth in the 1990s and 2000s, China experienced a …
Economics April 21, 2021

Digital Renaissance

What Data and Economics Tell Us about the Future of Popular Culture

Joel Waldfogel

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Digitization is reshaping creative industries. Old gatekeepers in music, publishing, television, movies, and other industries no longer play such an important role, and digital piracy makes it easy for consumers …
Economics April 19, 2021

The Human Network

How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors

Matthew O. Jackson

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Social networks existed and shaped our lives long before Silicon Valley startups made them virtual. For over two decades economist Matthew O. Jackson, a professor at Stanford University, has studied how …
Economics April 15, 2021

Everybody Lies

Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Economist, data journalist, and best-selling author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz uses data from the internet to gain new insights into the human psyche. In his new book Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and …