How Does Growth Affect Ideas?

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Yap: People who have a higher income do not think more like economists, but people who either have experienced or expect higher income growth do. So there is that fact in my mind. And then there is also this big literature on on non convergence. Yap: Good ideas cause good policy, which is almost a tatlogy and good policy causes good growth. The last few years as cutting against my model, just because it seems like people are getting very angry when it's hard to find what the supposed cause of it is.

"No single paper is that good", says Bryan Caplan. To really understand a topic, you need to read the entire literature in the field. And to do the kind of scholarship Bryan's work requires, you need to cover multiple fields. Only that way can you assemble a wide variety of evidence into useful knowledge.

But few scholars ever even try to reach the enlightened interdisciplinary plane. So how does he do it?

Tyler explores Bryan's approach, including how to avoid the autodidact's curse, why his favorite philosopher happens to be a former classmate, what Tolstoy has that science fiction lacks, the idea trap, most useful wrong beliefs, effective altruism, Larry David, what most economics papers miss about the return to education, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded April 17th, 2018 Other ways to connect

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