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- [Christina] The most important thing[br]that I try to pass on

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is the sense that economics[br]is an empirical field,

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then if you get[br]new empirical evidence,

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you're going to have[br]to change the way

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you think about the economy.

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I think being open to that

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is the most important thing[br]for a young economist to know.

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Economists -- not a group

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with a lot of Marys,[br]Natashas or Juanitas,

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and that's caused[br]a lot of controversy.

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However, what's often overlooked[br]are the actual female economists

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who are pushing economics forward

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by addressing real-world issues.

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Welcome to Women in Economics.

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♪ [music] ♪

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I grew up in a family

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where public policy[br]was discussed a lot.

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I was planning to be a lawyer,

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so I was going to major[br]in Government.

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And as part of the Government[br]major at my college,

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you had to take[br]a year of Economics.

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I was about three weeks in,[br]and I was hooked,

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like the government major's gone,[br]the lawyer's gone,

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I was in an Economist.

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Christina Romer[br]is a macro economic historian.

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She takes the tools[br]of modern economics,

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statistics, and data

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and applies them[br]to historical questions.

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- [Narrator] Christie's researcher[br]agenda throughout her career

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has focused[br]on a course set of topics

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about economic fluctuations[br]and business cycles.

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She's been asking and answering

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fascinating questions[br]about our economy,

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starting with her dissertation[br]as a graduate student at MIT.

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There, she changed[br]her understanding

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of how the economy[br]has grown over time.

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I think the questions[br]that came to me

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were about monetary policy[br]and business cycles

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and the Great Depression.

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- [Narrator] It was widely believed

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that government policies led to[br]less fluctuations and unemployment

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after World War II.

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However, the data before[br]World War II was unreliable.

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- [Nancy] But Christie came up[br]with the ingenious insight

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that while you couldn't clean up[br]the historical data,

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you could fuzzy up[br]the more modern data,

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and that's exactly what she did.

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And when she did it, lo and behold,

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all these differences[br]basically collapsed.

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- [Narrator] Amazingly,[br]if she applied

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the old techniques to the new data,

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the pose WOrld War II economy

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looked just as volatile[br]as the pre-World War economy.

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This contradicted the consensus

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on the role of government[br]stabilization policies.

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Her research rattled[br]the economic community.

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It made a splash.

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I remember one of the prominent[br]economist MIT,

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his first reaction was,

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"Well, I'd be very upset[br]about this if I believed it.

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So I'm not going to believe it."

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Throughout her academic career,

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Christine continued to challenge

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her understanding[br]of the Great Depression.

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As just one example,[br]most economists believed

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the Great Depression ended

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because of higher[br]government spending

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and investment in public works.

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She showed that the impact[br]of those policies

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were relatively small compared to

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the monetary policy[br]changes taking place