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Governor Talks

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on the New Frontier for Central Banks

Shaktikanta Das November 9, 2023

The world of money is changing fast and central banks are at the very center of that change. Shaktikanta Das is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, which is responsible for regulating currency and securing monetary stability for the world’s 5th largest economy. In this podcast, Das sits down with IMF Asia and Pacific Department head, Krishna Srinivasan, to discuss RBI’s strategy for today and for the future.

F&D Magazine

F&D Magazine / Economic growth

Xavier Jaravel on Democratizing Innovation to Spur Growth

XAVIER JARAVEL April 1, 2025

Most of today’s innovators emerge from a narrow demographic group with specific backgrounds, which Xavier Jaravel says creates the phenomena of “Lost Einsteins” and “Lost Marie Curies". Jaravel is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. In this podcast, he talks about the benefits of unleashing untapped talent and broadening the pool of innovators worldwide.

F&D Magazine / Education

Amory Gethin Measures the Economic Value of Education

AMORY GETHIN March 20, 2025

Economists have long surmised that people’s knowledge and skills contribute significantly to economic development, but to what degree can access to an education change lives? Amory Gethin is an economist in the World Bank Development Research Group working on growth and inequality and has sought to quantify the economic value of education as it relates to global poverty reduction. In this podcast, Gethin says investing in education advances those who pursue degrees and those who don’t.

F&D Magazine / Economic growth

Karthik Sastry on Animal Spirits and the Economy

KARTHIK SASTRY March 12, 2025

While we like to think our financial decisions are based on logic, the truth is, they are largely driven by emotion. So when John Maynard Keynes looked for methods to measure economic fluctuations, animal spirits were a key ingredient. Karthik Sastry is a macroeconomist and assistant professor at Princeton University. In this podcast, he says personal instincts and primal urges are known to cause cycles of boom and bust, and one way to gauge those emotions is through economic narratives.

F&D Magazine

Oren Cass on the Invisible Hand

OREN CASS March 3, 2025

Modern economics was built on ideas spelled out by Adam Smith in his 18th-century The Wealth of Nations. But while he used the term only once in that voluminous economic treatise, Smith is most remembered for “the invisible hand,” a metaphor that Oren Cass says has wrongly been associated with the idea that markets magically self-correct. Cass is the founder and chief economist at American Compass. In this podcast, he says the contortion of Smith’s idea led to a blind faith in markets, whereas “the invisible hand” was really about ensuring the alignment between private profit and the public interest.

Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up

Driving Change / Development

Driving Change: Rumana Huque on the Real Costs of Bangladesh’s Tobacco Dependency

Rumana Huque February 28, 2025

The International Economic Association’s Women in Leadership in Economics Initiative (IEA-WE) connects women economists worldwide and helps showcase their important empirical research, especially in developing countries. IMF Podcasts has partnered with the IEA-WE to produce a special series featuring the economists behind the invaluable local research that informs policymakers in places often overlooked.

Driving Change / Data collection

Driving Change: Rose Ngugi on how Indices are giving Kenya an Edge

ROSE NGUGI December 4, 2024

Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up is an IMF / IEA-WE collaborative podcast series. This episode features Kenyan economist Rose Ngugi whose indices are helping local counties design better policies.

Driving Change / Inclusion and gender

Driving Change: Ipek Ilkkaracan on Why Investing in Care Pays Off

IPEK ILKKARACAN December 4, 2024

Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up is an IMF / IEA-WE collaborative podcast series. This episode features Turkish economist Ipek Ilkkaracan, who makes a strong business case for investing in social care infrastructure.

Driving Change / Development

Driving Change: Marcela Eslava on Latin America’s Social Security Woes

MARCELA ESLAVA December 4, 2024

Driving Change: Women-Led Development Economics from the Ground Up is an IMF / IEA-WE collaborative podcast series. This episode features Colombian economist Marcela Eslava, whose research looks to fix Latin America’s dysfunctional social security network.

Fintech

Technology

Simon Johnson on Technology, Institutions and Prosperity

SIMON JOHNSON February 14, 2025

Countries with better institutions are more prosperous. A truism perhaps, but then why are they so hard to build and sustain? That is the question that Simon Johnson has sought to explain since the fall of communism and the basis for the research that won him the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. In this podcast, Johnson discusses the interdependence of institutions and technology, the topic of his latest book Power and Progress.

Technology / Artificial intelligence

Yuval Noah Harari on Human Evolution and the AI Revolution

Yuval Noah Harari October 1, 2024

Stories can unify or divide but our ability to imagine them is uniquely human. Cooperation and trust, built through shared stories and narratives, are the foundation of human societies and economies. So what happens when humans no longer hold the pen? Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and author. In this podcast, Harari says artificial intelligence is a risk to humankind’s most valuable resource, trust.

Technology / Fintech

Measuring Money in the Digital Age: Jim Tebrake

Jim Tebrake January 23, 2024

As the global economy becomes increasingly digitalized, effective policy and regulation are critical to ensure a stable and equitable financial system. Jim Tebrake is Deputy Director and heads the data and methodology efforts in the IMF Statistics Department. In this podcast, Tebrake says the world of digital money is changing quickly and statisticians should be prepared to provide the data that policymakers need to respond effectively.

Technology / Artificial intelligence

AI’s Real Risk to Wages: Andrew Berg and Maryam Vaziri

MARYAM VAZIRI, ANDREW BERG December 7, 2023

The pace at which artificial intelligence is transforming jobs is astounding, but while it boasts higher productivity AI is also increasing wage inequality. When workers are replaced by machines, real wages decline, and the owners of capital prosper. So who owns AI and how should its benefits be distributed? The IMFs Andrew Berg and Maryam Vaziri discuss AI’s inequality problem.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Outlooks

Reforms amid Great Expectations: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Outlook

SOPHIA CHEN, ANDREW TIFFIN November 13, 2024

With sub-Saharan Africa soon to have one of the largest working-age populations in the world, removing barriers to business growth and encouraging higher productivity industries will help provide the employment opportunities it needs. Wenjie Chen and Andrew Tiffin produce the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, they say implementing reforms that create suﬃcient jobs will improve prospects for the region.

Outlooks

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas on the Global Outlook: Steady but Slow

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas May 2, 2024

The World Economic Outlook is more than projected growth rates. The research behind those projections tells the story of how 190 countries, slowly but steadily, found their way through the fog of the past few years to emerge a testament to the resilience of the global economy. IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas says the fears of a global recession have not materialized but the path ahead is not without obstacles.

Outlooks

Wenjie Chen on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Latest Outlook

SOPHIA CHEN April 25, 2024

Sub-Saharan Africa is slowly emerging from four turbulent years with higher growth expected for nearly two thirds of countries. But while inflation has almost halved and debt has broadly stabilized, economies still face financing shortages and impending debt repayments. Wenjie Chen is deputy head of the team that publishes the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. In this podcast, she says the surging global demand for minerals could help the region overcome the ongoing funding squeeze.

Outlooks / Inflation

Euro Area Inflation and how Import Prices, Profits, and Wages fit in

Frederik Toscani August 3, 2023

While import prices account for much of Europe’s inflation, its outlook largely depends on how companies absorb wage gains as higher prices erode workers’ purchasing power. IMF economist Frederik Toscani says corporate profits account for 45 percent of price rises since the start of 2022.

Women in Economics

Women In Economics

Women in Economics: Kate Raworth on Economics for the Living Planet

KATE RAWORTH August 29, 2024

Kate Raworth talks with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe about her alternative economic model Doughnut Economics, which places economic objectives within the social and ecological boundaries of the living planet. Raworth is an ecological economist and the author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist.

Women In Economics / Development

Women in Economics: Una Osili on the Resilience of Philanthropy and Why so Few African Women Economists

Una Osili May 21, 2024

When disaster strikes, the knee-jerk reaction is to seek public funds for support, but private donors have the agility that governments often don’t. Una Osili holds the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at Indiana University and believes Africa would benefit from more private donors and more African women to manage it. In this podcast, Rhoda Metcalfe asks Dr. Osili about her work and why there aren’t more women economists on the continent.

Women In Economics

Women in Economics: Olivia Mitchell on Retirement Reality

March 28, 2024

With life expectancy steadily rising and pension systems doomed to fall short, the prospects for an early retirement are fading fast. Olivia Mitchell wrote the book on retirement and modern pension research and has spent her career helping people improve their financial literacy. Mitchell is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She sat down with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss the challenges of today’s economy for Americans planning their golden years.

Women In Economics / Labor

Women in Economics: Juliet Schor on the Benefits of a 4-Day Week

Juliet Schor February 1, 2024

Productivity has been the driving force behind the five- sometimes six-day workweek, but there is a growing body of evidence that shows a shorter week is equally, if not more productive in many respects. Juliet Schor is a champion of the four-day week and led the charge in the early 90s with her book The Overworked American. Journalist Rhoda Metcalfe spoke with Juliet Schor about her four-day week mission, as part of our special Women in Economics series.

BEHIND THE MIC

Bruce Edwards

International Monetary Fund

Bruce Edwards produces the IMF podcast program. He's an award-winning audio producer and journalist who's covered armed conflicts, social unrest, and natural disasters from all corners of the world. He believes economists have an important role in solving the world's problems and aspires to showcase their research in every IMF podcast.

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ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

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BEHIND THE MIC

Bruce Edwards

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