American Firms Are Better Managed, and They Take That With They Abroad

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How much of the measured productivity edge of american multi nationals is just tax arbitrage and where profits get assigned to. American companies seem to make huge profits abroad. And one big explanation is they're exploiting lots of this intangible capital, which we think of as good management. I don't see that as being relate to transfer pricing and off shore tax manipulation. But i think american firms are driven at you by better innovation and better management....

What might the electrification of factories teach us about how quickly we’ll adapt to remote work? What gives American companies an edge over their competitors on the international stage? What value do management consultants really provide? Stanford professor Nick Bloom’s research studies how management practices, productivity techniques, and uncertainty shape outcomes across companies and countries.

He joined Tyler for a conversation about which areas of science are making progress, the factors that have made research more expensive, why government should invest more in R&D, how lean management transformed manufacturing, how India’s congested legal system inhibits economic development, the effects of technology on Scottish football hooliganism, why firms thrive in China, how weak legal systems incentivize nepotism, why he’s not worried about the effects of remote work on American productivity (in the short-term), the drawbacks of elite graduate programs, how his first “academic love” shapes his work today, the benefits of working with co-authors, why he prefers periodicals and podcasts to reading books, and more.

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Recorded July 13th, 2020 Other ways to connect

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