From Poverty to Prosperity

From Poverty To Prosperity by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz

Themes: secular trends, international perspective, historical perspective, prosperity

This book, by Arnold Kling (a blogger at EconLog and a fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University) and Nick Schulz (of the American Enterprise Institute) describes “Econ 2.0″ — a modification and improvement over the classical economics perspective to include the importance of “software” – the cultural and institutional norms that affect productivity. The authors take both an international and a historical perspective. In addition to sharing their own insights, the authors interview Douglass North, William Easterly, Robert Fogel, Amar Bhide, Edmund Phelps, William Baumol, and other economists who are approaching the problem of describing the impact of culture/institutions/attitudes on the economy.

Here are reviews of the book: Ira Stoll, David Brooks (New York Times), Remnant Culture.

Here is a podcast where the author discusses his book and here is a Cato Event on the book.