All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

Dec 11 2024 64 ep. 26 mins 150

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast artwork

Join Stanford GSB finance professor Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen of The Wharton School in a conversation with prominent business leaders about common flaws in the decision making process and what to do about them. Learn more at AllElseEqualPodcast.com.All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

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Ep52 “Should Legacy Admissions at Universities Be Illegal?” with Patrick Awuah

Dec 11 2024 26 mins

Should legacy admissions at colleges and universities be banned? What are the benefits and tradeoffs of admitting students based on their legacy status? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with guest Patrick Awuah, president of Ashesi University, about the Ghanaian university’s unique economic engine and the place for legac

Ep51 Celebrating 50 Episodes: The Biggest All Else Equal Mistakes

Nov 14 2024 27 mins

The All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions podcast has officially done 50 episodes! To commemorate the milestone, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen look back on some of the major all else equal mistakes they’ve covered on the show. With highlights from past guests like Google CFO Ruth Porat and former SEC chair Jay Clayton, Jonathan and Jules

Ep50 “Is Proxy Advising a Catch-22?” with Chester Spatt

Oct 30 2024 24 mins

If the purpose of a proxy advisory firm is to gather information and advise shareholders on how to vote, then how do the firms handle the many different goals and incentives each shareholder brings to the table? Where do the proxy advisory firms’ interests truly lie? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with guest Chester Sp

Ep49 “Making Regulation Work” with Jay Clayton

Oct 16 2024 27 mins

Regulation is meant to fix problems in the market, but as more and more regulation is introduced, those issues have a tendency to evolve into new ones. So is all this regulation even accomplishing what it set out to do? And how do you even measure the success of regulation to begin with? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen sit down

Ep48 “Are CEOs Underpaid?” with Dirk Jenter

Oct 02 2024 28 mins

Are CEOs overpaid? It’s easy to see million-dollar (or even billion-dollar) salaries and jump to conclusions. But those figures might not capture the full picture. So, what really goes into deciding CEO compensation? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome back Dirk Jenter, Professor of Finance at the London School of Economic

Ep47 “Is the US National Debt Sustainable?” with Mohamed El-Erian

Sep 18 2024 35 mins

What is the best way to measure National Debt Sustainability, and how does the US do on those metrics compared to other countries? In the first episode of the new season, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with guest Mohamed El-Erian about the intricacies of the national debt, different measures of sustainability, and the implications of risin

Rerun: Ep12 Corporations as Job Security Providers

Sep 04 2024 20 mins

This summer break, we'll be taking a pause from uploading new episodes. However, Jules and Jonathan have handpicked some favorite past episodes for new listeners to enjoy and subscribers to revisit! Corporations are often characterized as evil entities that exploit workers. But in fact they enable firms to provide job security and thus serve the important role of minimizing risk f

Rerun: Ep1 "Making a Business Decision" with Ruth Porat

Aug 21 2024 24 mins

This summer break, we'll be taking a pause from uploading new episodes. However, Jules and Jonathan have handpicked some favorite past episodes for new listeners to enjoy and subscribers to revisit! When the scientific method began to be applied widely hundreds of years ago, innovation bloomed. Today, those same principles inform business leaders who rely on data analysis to se

Rerun: Ep17 "Can the Free Market Discourage Fraud?" with Marc Cohodes

Aug 07 2024 27 mins

This summer break, we'll be taking a pause from uploading new episodes. However, Jules and Jonathan have handpicked some favorite past episodes for new listeners to enjoy and subscribers to revisit! There’s a negative connotation associated with short selling – the act of betting against a stock to perform well. But is this trading practice truly a bad thing? In this epis

Rerun: Ep8 “Why Capitalism Works" with John Cochrane

Jul 24 2024 31 mins

This summer break, we'll be taking a pause from uploading new episodes. However, Jules and Jonathan have handpicked some favorite past episodes for new listeners to enjoy and subscribers to revisit! Competitive markets don’t produce the same level of prosperity for everyone. But economist John Cochrane thinks they give us something essential — incentives. In this episode o