Research Briefs·Feb 3, 2026

FinTech Firms Spend Much More on Sales and Marketing Than Traditional Financial Firms

Amir Sufi
FinTech firms spend three times more on sales and marketing than traditional financial companies, an investment that builds valuable customer...
Podcasts episode·Feb 3, 2026

Who Really Paid for the Tariffs? Brent Neiman on Liberation Day’s Economic Aftermath

Tess Vigeland and Brent Neiman
Who bore the cost of 2025’s sweeping tariffs? UChicago economist Brent Neiman returns to The Pie to discuss his new...
Research Briefs·Jan 28, 2026

Africa as a Success Story: Political Organization in Pre-Colonial Africa

Soeren J. Henn and James Robinson
In 1880, Africa was extremely decentralized politically, with roughly 45,000 distinct polities based on mutual co-existence, with local community prioritized...
Research Briefs·Jan 27, 2026

The Incidence of Tariffs: Rates and Reality

Gita Gopinath and Brent Neiman
Statutory tariff rates on US imports rose to historic levels; however, shipping lags, exemptions, and enforcement gaps kept the actual...
Podcasts episode·Jan 20, 2026

Venezuela After Maduro: What Comes Next?

Tess Vigeland, Chris Blattman, Ryan Kellogg, and Paul Poast
Days after the Trump administration’s surprise military operation captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a panel of UChicago scholars gathered to...
Research Briefs·Jan 20, 2026

Closed Visas Trap Temporary Foreign Workers in Worse Jobs

Kory Kroft, Isaac Norwich, Matthew Notowidigdo, and Stephen Tino
Gaining permanent residency leads to a sharp, immediate, and persistent increase in job switching of 21.7 percentage points and a...
Research Briefs·Jan 14, 2026

Time-Based Competition Defines Digital Markets: Field Experiments Show Breaking Up Meta Would Harm Users

Joseph Goodman, Lancelot Henry de Frahan, Justin Holz, John List, Evan McKay, Niall McMenamin, Magne Mogstad, Sally Sadoff, and Hal Sider
Field experiments reveal that Facebook and Instagram compete broadly for user time, not narrowly with Snapchat for social networking. When...
Podcasts episode·Jan 13, 2026

Why Banks Exist and Why They Fail: Douglas Diamond on Runs, Regulation, and the Risks of Short-Term Debt

Benjamin Krause and Douglas W. Diamond
Financial crises are “everywhere and always” a problem of short-term debt. In this Extra Slice of The Pie, Nobel laureate...
Research Briefs·Jan 12, 2026

Direct Lenders Make Inroads into Middle Market Banking, but the Market Still Belongs to Traditional Providers

Young Soo Jang, Dasol Kim, and Amir Sufi
Though direct lending has grown rapidly in recent years, it is primarily concentrated among firms in specific industries and specific...