Robert Smith
speaker
1,476 appearances
11 recordings
6 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 8 Jul
Robert Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 6 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
This is the location for our first case study, which is about water, the commodity that keeps all of us alive.
Professor Justin Wolfers is with us.
Before we hear our case study, what question should our students keep in mind?
We will be back with Justin after the case study, which comes to us from a story on the Planet Money Indicator from back in 2021.
That indicator episode from Stacey Vanek-Smith and Darian Woods in 2021.
Of course, we also have along a man who loves his markets, water and otherwise, Professor Justin Wolfers.
Hey, Justin.
Hey, Robert.
So let's go back to a very basic question.
What would happen in Australia if everyone just used the water that they needed?
They're farmers.
They know what they need to grow their crops.
You want the crops.
Let them just make the decision about what they need and pass on the water to someone else if they don't need it.
In previous summer schools, we have gone over the economic term for this, which is tragedy of the commons.
You should check your notes, students.
And Australia has chosen to tackle this problem with a sort of classic solution, a market.
So, Justin, what is it about markets that can help combat scarcity?
But as we heard from the story, there were concerns about the fact that once you have a centralized market like this, then anyone can walk in and trade water, even if they're not farmers, even if they're not in Australia, you can be part of this market.
Right.
Showing 41–60 of 1,476 · page 3 of 74
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