The making of Prosperity and Poverty

今日は第2章と第3章。95ページまで。
第2章Theories That Don't Work

Poor countries are poor not because of their geographies or cultures, or because their leaders do not know which policies will enrich their citizens.

モンテスキューやジャレド・ダイアモンドらのgeography仮説、マックス・ウェーバーらのculture仮説、ライオネル・ロビンスらのignorance仮説では説明がつかないことを指摘。

メキシコ国境や朝鮮半島の格差のような狭い地域内での格差や、同一国による植民地間の格差が説明できないとのことです。また、一般に、東アジアの成長とは整合性が高くないようです。

そして、制度、政治の重要性へ。

以下メモ。

...most of current world inequality emerged since the late eighteenth century, following on the tails of the Industrial Revolution.

Neither did the king have incentives to adopt the plow on a large scale or to make increasing agricultural productivity his main priority; exporting slaves was so much more profitable.

...leaders of African nations that have languished over the last half century under insecure property rights and economic institutions, impoverishing much of their populations, did not allow this to happen because they thought it was good economics; they did so because they could get away with it and enrich themselves at the expense of the rest, or because they thought it was good politics, a way of keeping themselves in power by buying the support of crucial groups or elites.

第3章 The making of Prosperity and Poverty

How prosperity and poverty are determined by the incentives created by institutions, and how politics determines what institutions a nation has.

戦争後独裁となった北朝鮮と独立後も同じような制度を自ら作り上げたコンゴの変遷。所有権が広く認められていないような制度の国でもエリートの存在や歴史的な状況によっては成長する可能性もあるが、そのような成長は、(その間に制度が変わらない限り)続かない。

以下抜粋

These large planters had secure and well-enforced property rights over their land and even over their slaves. If one planter wanted to sell slaves to another, he could do so and expect a court to enforce such a sale or any other contract he wrote. Why? Of the forty judges and justices of the peace on the island, twenty-nine of them were large planters. Also, the eight most senior military officials were all large planters.

Today technological change requires education both for the innovatior and the worker.

Fear of creative destruction is often at the root of the opposition to inclusive economic and political institutions.