Episode 20: Amitabh Chandra and the productivity of scientists

We had the pleasure to record an episode with Amitabh Chandra. We discuss his working paper "Productivity Differences in Fundamental Life-Sciences Discovery" co-authored with Connie Xu. The aim of the paper is to research whether a life scientist's university has an effect on their productivity. To answer this question, they first attempt to measure a scientist's productivity, and then use a movers design to estimate the causal effect of the university on productivity. We end the episode with a conversation about what makes a research idea worth pursuing as well as the purpose and art of presentations.  

Guest: Amitabh Chandra (Professor at Harvard) 

Hosts: Prithviraj Basumallik and Fanny Tallgren  

Timestamps:

(4:45) Beginning of the discussion of working paper 

(14:38) The results of the paper 

(19:17) Movers design used to estimate the causal effect

(28:00) What makes a research idea worth pursuing? 

(36:36) The purpose and art of presentations