Book Summary: Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson
This summary of Why Nations Fail by Nobel Prize winners Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson explains how institutions are key to understanding […]
Tag: economics
Fact-checking an AI optimist article in The Economist
[Estimated time: 6 mins] On 26 January 2026, The Economist published an optimistic article arguing that AI won’t displace white collar jobs. […]
Book Summary: How Asia Works by Joe Studwell
In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell sets out the three-part formula that bucked the Washington Consensus and propelled East Asian economies like […]
How AI might cause GDP and well-being to (further) decouple
[Estimated time: 12 mins] This is my third post for this series. It refers to concepts ideas in my previous two posts, […]
GDP has never been a measure of well-being
[Estimated time: 14 mins] When people speculate about the effects of AI on “economic growth”, they often assume economic growth will increase […]
Shouldn’t productivity improvements reduce GDP?
[Estimated time: 10 mins] I was chatting the other day with a friend about AI and economic growth. In the middle of […]
Book Summary: Why Are the Prices So D*mn High? by Eric Helland and Alex Tabarrok
This summary of Why Are the Prices So D*mn High? Health, Education and the Baumol Effect seeks to explain why it seems […]
Book Summary: Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
This summary of Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explains how scarcity changes the […]
“Thinking in Systems” and Economics
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows uses many economics-related examples. Even though Meadows’ background is as an environmental scientist, she clearly knows […]
Book Summary: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
This summary of Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows explains how systems thinking can help us better understand and change […]