Leading economist Chad Syverson speculates about the ingredients in productivity’s secret sauce.

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks with Chad Syverson. Syverson is George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His work focuses on the interactions between firm structure, market structure, and productivity.

In this podcast, he covers topics including the following:

• Why productivity is important
• How the world economy is doing on productivity
• What major themes of our age, from the path to net zero to trade fragmentation and aging, could impact productivity
• The potential role of AI to change the game for productivity
• How productivity growth is diffused

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A former US deputy chief technology officer talks about how digitization can be used to create a government that works for the people.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America, served as the United States government’s deputy chief technology officer, and is author of the book Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Jenn joins us to share her personal reflections of her time in government and the path forward.

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Co-host Janet Bush talks with Ed Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. His latest book, coauthored with health economist David Cutler, is Survival of the city: The future of urban life in an age of isolation, written to make sense of what might be the impact of the pandemic on cities. They covers topics including:

• Has the pandemic changed cities temporarily or permanently?
• What does the hybrid building look like?
• Do developing world cities teach us something new?
• How can homelessness be tackled?

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