Behind economics and finance: prisoners’ dilemmas and payday loans

Mary Morgan, LSE Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics, speaks to us about her book The World in the Model: How Economists Work and Think and how the once prose-heavy discipline founded by Adam Smith has been transformed by maths and modelling. Carl Packman, author of Loan Sharks: The Rise and Rise of Payday Lending, discusses the exponential growth of the payday lending industry in the UK. Director of LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance, Professor John van Reenen, thinks back to his early career and identifies the books that shaped his thinking about the economic world. Presented by Amy Mollett. Produced by Cheryl Brumley. Other Contributors: Mary Morgan, Carl Packman, John van Reenen, Joel Suss. Music and sound came courtesy of the following users at freesound.org: wim (London underground train arriving 6 and 13), Foop (Edithouse); and The FreeMusicArchive.org: Dumbo Gets Mad (Radical Leap), Podington Bear (Dark Matter, Light in Branches, Pink Blossoms, Light Touch), Deltason (Groundloop). Collage photo: Photo: Payday Loan (Thomas Hawk) and Prisoner’s Dilemma Guila.Forsythe via Flickr.