Why Nations Fail: Extractive and Inclusive Institutions
Acemoglu and Robinson’s goal is to explain why some nations are rich and others are poor. They present a theory based on the interaction between political and economic institutions. Casual empiricism...
View ArticleOne Hundred and Fifty Years of American Growth
American technological progress was rapid between 1920 and 1970, and slow after 1970. Why was it so rapid before 1970? Why was it so slow after 1970?
View ArticleMore on the Division of the World
Long-distance trade grew rapidly during the nineteenth century. Third World countries increased their production of primary products, and decreased their production of industrial goods. The gap between...
View ArticleThe Division of the World
W. Arthur Lewis explains how the world divided into manufacturers and primary producers...
View ArticleThe Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was influenced by both the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment...
View ArticleThe Foundations of the Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution occurred when new methods — notably mathematical reasoning and experimentation — were adopted, but at the time of the Revolution, both mathematics and experimentation had been...
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The Enlightenment in Britain and France
Based on Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Roads to Modernity (Vintage Books, 2004), and Anthony Pagden, The Enlightenment, and Why It Still Matters (Random House, 2013) What if the Industrial Revolution, the...
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How Modern Science Came to China
Based on Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Harvard, 2008), and Jerry Liu and Kent Deng, eds., Chinese Technological History: The Great Divergence (A Special Issue of...
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The Transformation of Japan after the Meiji Restoration
Based on Janet Hunter, The Emergence of Modern Japan (Routledge, 1989) In the early nineteenth century, Britain had industrialized and risen to commercial dominance. A few other countries — notably...
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Democracy’s Dilemma
Based on A. C. Grayling, Democracy and Its Crisis (Oneworld Publications, 2017) Acemoglu and Robinson argue that sustained economic growth requires both inclusive economic institutions and inclusive...
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