Why Nations Fail

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No way in one hour conversation that we can do justice to the scope and breadth of this book. It's short of 500 pages, but the historical richness of it is quite extraordinary. So soont be too ambitious yet. Why nations fail has this sort of, sort of a single word iorof, but it's, it's the right le is wide. Some nations fail and others succeed. That's like somebody in macawriting to day in a book called general theory will be a little fitatious.

Daron Acemoglu of MIT and author (with James Robinson) of Why Nations Fail talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book: why some nations fail and others succeed, why some nations grow over time and sustain that growth, while others grow and then stagnate. Acemoglu draws on an exceptionally rich set of examples over space and time to argue that differences in institutions--political governance and the inclusiveness of the political and economic system--explain the differences in economics success across nations and over time. Acemoglu also discusses how institutions evolve and the critical role institutional change plays in economic success or failure. Along the way, he explains why previous explanations for national economic success are inadequate. The conversation closes with a discussion of the implications of the arguments for foreign aid and attempts by the wealthy nations to help nations that are poor.