Is There Persistence?

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South Korea had a reputation for being a place of extreme poverty, right? Yes? Yes? No. But that's actually a testament to t to thecrean society. And if you look at things like architecture, food, a academicsthink crea was has always been extremely, extremely sophisticated. So i think hat important thing here is thinking about levels or growth rates. I think we have a pretty good sense of which countries we'll have higher levels of income. We can predict younow....

Nathan Nunn’s work history includes automotive stores, a freight company, a paint factory, a ski hill, photography, book publishing, private tutoring, and more. Having grown up in a lower-income Canadian family, he recognizes the importance of having multiple pathways to climb the socioeconomic ladder. Now, as a development economist at Harvard, his research investigates how things like history, culture and contract enforcement shape the development paths of nations.

Nathan joined Tyler for a conversation about which African countries a theory of persistence would lead him to bet on, why so many Africans live in harder to settle areas, his predictions for the effects of Chinese development on East Africa, why genetic distance is a strong predictor of bilateral income differences and trade, the pleasant surprises of visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, the role of the Catholic Church in the development of the West, why Canadian football is underrated, the unique commutes of Ottawans, the lack of Canadian brands, what’s missing from most economic graduate programs, the benefits of studying economics outside of the United States, how the plow shaped gender roles in the societies that used it, the cultural values behind South Korea’s success, and more.

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Recorded July 10th, 2020 Other ways to connect

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