Introduction and Call for Stories

• Steven Dubner announces a new series on mentorship, inviting listeners to share their personal stories about mentorship in various fields including business, academia, sports, and personal life.
• Emphasizes that all stories, regardless of perceived significance, are welcome.

The Phrase "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions"

• Originates from the Bible and popularized by Samuel Johnson in the 18th century.
• Notable mentions include authors and figures such as Charlotte Bronte, Lord Byron, Karl Marx, Ozzy Osbourne, and Madonna.
• This concept leads into the discussion about economics and unintended consequences.

Economics and Trade-offs

• Economics deals fundamentally with trade-offs and their consequences.
• The episode explores stories of well-meaning policies that resulted in negative outcomes, particularly in workplaces and employment rates.

Josh Angrist and Causal Relationships

• Josh Angrist, a professor at MIT and Nobel Prize winner, discusses the influence of his research on public policy, emphasizing high-quality scholarship over direct influence.
• His research focuses on understanding causal relationships and measuring the outcomes of policies.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

• The ADA was signed in 1990 to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.
• Angrist's research reveals that the ADA may inadvertently have negative effects, reducing employment rates and earnings for disabled workers.
• Key finding: Employers avoid hiring disabled workers to prevent potential costs associated with accommodations.

Policy Design Challenges

• Policymaking struggles with effectiveness due to various factors like incomplete knowledge about outcomes, complexity of political compromises, and the unpredictable reactions of affected individuals.
• This encompasses the concept of the law of unintended consequences, which highlights that policies can have results that are opposite to intended effects.

Pay Transparency Laws

• Newly emerging pay transparency laws aim to shed light on salary structures within firms and between organizations.
• Zoe Cullen, an economist at Harvard, discusses the three types of pay transparency:
• Horizontal: Peer salary comparisons.
• Cross-firm: Salary visibility between firms to assess compensation competitiveness.
• Vertical: Visibility of pay differences within a company, especially between lower-tier employees and higher management.
• Findings indicate transparency can compress wages, leading to lower average pay even as it aims to rectify pay gaps, especially for women.

Unintended Consequences of Good Policies

• Family leave policies have been shown to increase the gender pay gap, as women utilize leave disproportionately compared to men.
• Marina Gertsburg’s research post-#MeToo reveals a significant decline in project initiation among junior female academics, primarily the result of fewer collaborations with male colleagues.
• The fear of accusations of harassment led many male colleagues to avoid collaborating with women, thereby reducing opportunities for women.

Societal Impacts

• Researching collaborations shows a substantial decrease in project initiation by junior women from an average of 1.6 to 0.9 projects per year post-#MeToo.
• The gap reinforces the challenges women face in academia, where their productive output is essential for career advancement.

Concluding Perspectives

• The episode discusses the complex nature of policy impacts on society, particularly how good intentions can lead to negative consequences.
• Angrist and Gertsburg highlight the importance of understanding trade-offs in policymaking and the necessity for awareness of unintended outcomes.

Closing Remarks

• The episode encourages a reevaluation of how policies are created, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of potential outcomes to avoid backfire effects in well-meaning social initiatives.