economic growth

[Dave Backus]

The usual theme, but I ran across a particularly interesting version
of it. Courtesy of James Robinson, an Acemoglu coauthor, via Steve
Hsu, a physicist with an inexplicable interest in economics. Links
below, but here's my summary:

* Until roughly 200 years ago, everyone was poor. Variations in
living standards were modest by modern standards.

* Then some countries became more prosperous, and others didn't, which
led enormous disparity in living standards ("the great divergence").

* Education probably not the reason -- more likely a consequence of
good performance. Eg, Europeans moving to Latin America were more
highly educated than those moving to North America, yet the latter has
been far more successful economically.

* Lots of "institutions" matter, but one that comes up repeatedly is a
political structure that limits the power of the executive -- that's a
good thing for economic performance.

None of this is new, but the slides give you much more insight into
the logic and evidence than my summary.

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic599385.files/Lecture%201.pdf
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/11/long-view-and-great-divergence.html