The Difference Between Growth at the Frontier and Catch Up Growth?

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Do you think the distinction between economic growth at the frontier and catch up growth is always so well defined? So if you think of china, they seem to have innovations, how quickly they can build things. You could also have some significant technological success, but still very, very weak institutions. But all that said, i found when i started to think about problems, which is really the best test a theory, that i needed a different theoretical apparatus to think about, say, the challenge in tanzanea or germany.

Throughout his career, Paul Romer has enjoyed sampling and sifting through an ever-growing body of knowledge. He sometimes jokingly refers to himself as a random idea generator, relying on others to filter out the bad ones so his contributions are good. Not a bad strategy, as it turns out, for starting a successful business and winning a Nobel Prize.

Just before accepting that Prize, he joined Tyler for a conversation spanning one filtered set of those ideas, including the best policies for growth and innovation, his new thinking on the trilemma facing migration, how to rework higher education, general-purpose technologies, unlocking the power of reading for all kids, fixes for the English language, what economics misses about the ‘inside of the head,’ whether he’s a Jane Jacobs or Gouverneur Morris type, what Kanban taught him about management, his recent sampling of Pierce’s semiotics, Clarence White vs. Gram Parsons, his favorite Hot Tuna song, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded November 14th, 2018 Other ways to connect

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