What Counts as Economic Activity — and What Doesn’t

About this episode

Gene speaks with economist Misty Heggeness about her book Swiftynomics and the importance of recognizing unpaid labor in economic statistics.

What do we actually count as economic activity — and what do we leave out? In this episode, Gene speaks with economist Misty Heggeness about Swiftynomics, her new book on women’s work, unpaid care, and the limits of standard economic statistics. Misty uses Taylor Swift as a narrative anchor for a broader argument about care, work, and economic growth. She argues that large amounts of productive activity — especially care and household work — sit outside GDP. The conversation explores unpaid labour, the gender pay gap, universal childcare, and whether rethinking what we measure could lead to better economic policy.

People in this episode

Guest: Misty Heggeness

Topics covered

• economic activity
• unpaid labor
• gender pay gap
• universal childcare
• economic statistics

Keywords

• Swiftynomics
• women's work
• care work
• GDP
• economic policy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Swiftynomics

Books & works: Swiftynomics

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