What’s a High Voltage Idea? Economist John List Explains.
University of Chicago economist and author John List will explain why some great ideas make it big while others fall flat during the 2022 Nancy and Ray Loeschner Leadership Lecture on Feb. 22.
List, the author of The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale, is known for testing how behavioral theories apply in the real world. He has studied a wide range of markets and issues, including tipping, apologies, the gender pay gap in the gig economy, and more.
The event will be at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22 in Annenberg Hall, Room G02. A live webinar will accompany the in-person lecture. List will be introduced by School of Education and Social Policy Dean David Figlio and will sign books after the conversation.
- Register for the in-person lecture and book signing if you plan to attend the event at Annenberg Hall.
- Register for the live webinar if you plan to attend the event virtually. Note: The webinar registration lists a 4 p.m. start time, but the event begins at 4:15 p.m.
In The Voltage Effect, List argues that for an idea to have a widespread impact, it must achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale. By understanding how scaling works, List says, we can drive change in our schools, workplaces, communities, and society at large. “A better world can only be built at scale,” he says.
List, the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, began exploring how people behave in the sports card trading market in 1990, because it was his one area of expertise – and the only one he could self-fund, he has said.
Since then, he’s used a wide range of environments for his field experiments, including hospitals, schools, the Chicago Board of Trade, Costa Rican CEOs, the new automobile sector, open air markets across the globe, and various venues on the internet.
More recently, he has worked with various publicly traded corporations—from car manufacturers and travel companies to ride-share. In his book, he identifies five measurable signs that a scalable idea must have and offers strategies for avoiding flops.
“It’s a master class in how the quirks of human irrationality can make or break our ideas in the real world,” said Steven Levitt, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of Freakonomics.
List, the Visiting Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and is a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He received his bachelor’s in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and PhD in economics at the University of Wyoming.
List joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2005 and served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2012-2018. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he was a professor at the University of Central Florida, University of Arizona, and University of Maryland.
“The Voltage Effect is the tool kit for the ambitious, said Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit. “Packed with proven principles and pro tips made real through behind-the-scenes stories in settings ranging from Silicon Valley to African NGOs, it fills the gap between startup books and management books to show how any idea can achieve its full potential.”