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Pete Klenow has spent his career tackling some of economics’ biggest questions: Why do some countries grow rich while others remain poor? What drives long-run prosperity? And how can policy foster innovation and productivity? In this episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, Jon Hartley sits down with the Stanford economist to discuss Klenow’s influential research on sticky prices, development accounting, economic growth, and the allocation of resources across firms and industries.
The conversation explores how economists measure the sources of growth, why misallocation can hold back entire economies, and what Klenow’s research reveals about productivity differences across countries such as China, India, and the United States. Hartley and Klenow also examine the evolution of macroeconomics, the role of monetary policy, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on innovation, productivity, and future economic growth.
Recorded on June 2, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Pete Klenow is the Ralph Landau Professor of Economics at Stanford University, the Gordon and Betty Moore Senior Fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and the Dong Wei Fellow at the King Center for Economic Development. He is co-director of the Economic Fluctuations and Growth group at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and is a co-editor of the American Economic Review: Insights. His research focuses on productivity, prices and economic growth, using micro data to shed light on macro questions. Pete received his bachelor's degree in business from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986, and his PD in economics from Stanford in 1991. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He has received multiple awards for his MBA and undergraduate teaching.
Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Research Fellow at the UT-Austin Civitas Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami.
Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.
Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics.
For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/
