Huge differences that require explanation
28 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, population economics
Was 1800 (approximately) A Pivotal Year In Human History? Robert Fogel, Francis Fukuyama, And Deirdre McCloskey All Seem To Think So
24 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles, history of economic thought Tags: The Great Enrichment
Robert Fogel is a Nobel Prize Winning Economist. Here is something he said recently:”Technology rescued humankind from centuries of physical maladies and malnutrition, Mr. Fogel argues. Before the 19th century (1800), most people were caught in an endless cycle of subsistence farming.”See Technology Advances; Humans Supersize.Francis Fukuyama, author of the famous book The End of…
Was 1800 (approximately) A Pivotal Year In Human History? Robert Fogel, Francis Fukuyama, And Deirdre McCloskey All Seem To Think So
Book review: The Narrow Corridor
16 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking
My last book review was of Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s 2012 book Why Nations Fail. It’s taken me a while (with many interruptions), but I recently finished reading their 2019 book… 731 more words
Book review: The Narrow Corridor
China fact (?) of the day
15 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth miracles, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: China
A monograph by Yi Fuxian, a University of Wisconsin-Madison demographer and longtime critic of China’s population policies, argues that China’s actual population may be closer to 1.27 billion—not the 1.4 billion officially reported. The gap would be as much as 130 million people, roughly the population of Mexico. And Yi argues the distortion has warped…
China fact (?) of the day
Why Mowbray donates
07 Oct 2026 1 Comment
in development economics, entrepreneurship, growth miracles, politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election, China
Nick Mowbray writes: I’m aware of the criticism we receive for donating to National and ACT. I’m also aware of the false narrative that we lobby the government and expect something in return. So let me be clear: we have never lobbied the government. Less than 1% of ZURU’s revenue is in New Zealand. We…
Why Mowbray donates
India Rejects UN Climate Politics in Favor of Industrialization
07 Oct 2026 1 Comment
in development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles, International law, resource economics Tags: India
By Vijay Jayaraj India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, used the U.N. General Assembly gathering to say something that climate scaremongers like Al Gore and John Kerry have spent… The post India Rejects UN Climate Politics in Favor of Industrialization appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
India Rejects UN Climate Politics in Favor of Industrialization
Capitalism or Free Enterprise?
29 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics Tags: The Great Enrichment
I’ve addressed this issue in 2016 and 2021, so let’s continue this once-every-five-years tradition and ask whether supporters of economic liberty should stop advocating for “capitalism.” Instead, they should say they believe in “free enterprise” or the “free market.” I’ve used all of these terms, but polling data suggests that I’m making a mistake when […]
Capitalism or Free Enterprise?
The Great Enrichment
23 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: The Great Enrichment
After US Defeat: Vietnam and Afghanistan
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, industrial organisation, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Afghanistan, Vietnam
The American defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan are often compared as military and foreign-policy failures. But there is another comparison that matters at least as much: what happened to the people left behind after the Americans departed? If we put aside the destruction caused during the wars themselves and concentrate on their aftermaths, an important difference […]
After US Defeat: Vietnam and Afghanistan
The Milei Miracle, Part V
02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics Tags: Argentina
The world’s worst-performing economy for 100 years has – in a remarkably short period of time – become an amazing case study of economic liberalization. Thanks to President Javier Milei, Argentina is now enjoying an economic miracle. In Part V of this series (previous versions here, here, here, and here), we’re going to illustrate Milei’s […]
The Milei Miracle, Part V
Can Chile Once Again Become the Latin Tiger?
30 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, history of economic thought, macroeconomics Tags: Chile
In 2012, I wrote that pro-market reforms had turned Chile into the Latin Tiger. But two years later, in 2014, I wrote a column fretting that a recently elected left-leaning government was going to undermine prosperity. Based on the Maddison data, my concerns were justified. The country’s economic performance can be divided into three periods. […]
Can Chile Once Again Become the Latin Tiger?
The Confucian fertility paradox
21 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics
Total fertility rates in East Asia have fallen to levels without historical precedent, even though the region’s Confucian heritage long placed extraordinary emphasis on family continuity and large families. We argue that this “Confucian Fertility Paradox” dissolves once we separate two strands of the tradition and recognize that modernization affected them very differently. The pro-natal…
The Confucian fertility paradox
Further progress in South America
08 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics Tags: The Great Escape
The share of people who are hungry has been decreasing faster in South America than anywhere else in the world. It is down by one-third since 2020, according to a report published on July 21st by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Just 3.5% of people in the region consume insufficient calories, the lowest…
Further progress in South America
Missing women on Indian streets
09 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, discrimination, econometerics, economics of crime, gender, growth miracles, law and economics Tags: sex discrimination
How absent are women from city streets in the developing world? We answer this question using GPS-linked wearable cameras and randomized street audits across ~900 kilometers of roads in greater Mumbai. Across 4000+ street images containing 23,000+ visible person observations, women account for 16.4% of visible people in Mumbai and 14.7% in Navi Mumbai, far…
Missing women on Indian streets
Greg Ip Is Mistaken Again About U.S. Trade Deficits
15 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, growth miracles, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Editor: Writing about U.S. trade deficits, Greg Ip declares that “by exporting so much, China effectively forces its trading partners to run deficits” (“The Global Economy Is Threatened Again by Trade Imbalances,” June 12). Wrong. U.S. trade deficits occur whenever foreigners sell more to us than they…
Greg Ip Is Mistaken Again About U.S. Trade Deficits
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