Robin Hanson, PhD: Healthcare Signaling, the Conspicuous Caring Hypothesis, and Prediction Markets in Medicine

In this conversation, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin interview Robin Hanson, PhD, about healthcare and medicine. They discuss three randomized controlled trials on the population-wide benefits of medicine (RAND health insurance experiment, Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, and the Karnataka Hospital Insurance Experiment), which do not demonstrate benefit for more medical care. They talk about the conspicuous caring hypothesis put forward in Robin's book The Elephant in the Brain. Other topics discussed include end-of-life care, medicine as something Sacred, and prediction markets in medicine.

Who is Robin Hanson?

Robin Hanson, PhD, is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at Oxford University. He is known for his wide-ranging interests, including artificial intelligence, prediction markets, and signaling. He is the author of several books, including The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain.