Russ Roberts and I talk about From Poverty to Prosperity.
One interesting issue is why the economic ideas in the book are so little discussed in the mainstream media or in the standard economics curriculum. Part of the reason may be that the ideas do not support standard Progressive policy ideas. But I think that there are other reasons. What we call Economics 2.0 yields important insights, but not precise, mathematical answers. It also focuses on explaining long-term trends, not short-term forecasts. It draws lessons not from elegant mathematical models, but from looking at economic history and economic development. Thus, when I see the late Paul Samuelson recommending more study of economic history, I have hope that the ideas in our book will eventually get more mainstream attention.
READER COMMENTS
david
Dec 14 2009 at 11:26am
And I will venture that such a focus, should it come about, would not have a mainstream drawing the ideological conclusions I suspect you want it to yield.
I recall this post, for instance. Most people would not be likely to read the same lessons from history that you do, to say the least.
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