Advanced Transcript: Tim Bartik, Labor Economics, Upjohn Institute

With Transcription Errors Hopefully Now Fixed!

As python says, Hello, world! We have an advanced transcript for my subscribers that support the substack—to whom I say thank you! I’ll be having more things for you guys just as soon as I hear about from a journal about a paper I resubmitted, and then after I get the Mixtape finished (fingers crossed—December 1st!). But in the meantime, I have advanced transcripts. I’m going to also do something different I think going forward and that’s include with the advanced transcript our hosts from NotebookLM who can give their own thoughts about my guests. And this week that guest is none other than Tim Bartik from the Upjohn Institute. This was a very interesting interview and below is the transcript, and next week I’ll post the podcast.

Many people know Tim from the shift-share instrument, which has for a while also been called Bartik instruments (and which is my personal favorite name for it). It has over the years gotten a lot of attention by several research teams—Borusyak, Hull and Jaravel who have focused on the shock side, and Goldsmith-Pinkham, Sorkin and Swift on the share side.

But Tim is far more than having a design named after him. Tim has had an impactful and productive career outside of academia at Upjohn Institute working on topics in economic development and regional labor markets—which was in fact the very context in which he developed the formal logic of the shift-share instrument. In our interview, he shares parts of his personal story having to do with interests in public policy, his career in academia before moving outside of it, and what has also driven him as an economist and researcher. It was extremely inspiring.

Below the paywall is the hosts from notebookLM talking about the interview, as well as the transcript. Consider supporting the substack with $5/month! Thank you for those who already do.