Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio

What Exactly Is College For? (Update)

August 15, 202450 min

0:0050:15

About this episode

We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate their products to win market share and prestige points. In the first episode of a special series originally published in 2022, we ask what our chaotic system gets right — and wrong. (Part 1 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”) SOURCES:Peter Blair, faculty research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research and professor of education

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Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything — why is it safer to fly than drive, how do we decide whom to marry, and more.

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