Economists are turning to culture to explain wealth and poverty
As a result, the ideas of the earliest economists are being revised and improved
THE EMERGENCE of the discipline of economics in the 18th century was the result of people trying to explain something that had never happened before. At the time a handful of countries were becoming fabulously rich, while others remained dirt-poor. In 1500 the world’s richest country was twice as well-off as the poorest one; by 1750 the ratio was five to one. It is no coincidence that the most famous book in economics, published in 1776, inquired into “the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”.
This article appeared in the Schools brief section of the print edition under the headline “Hard work and black swans”
From the September 5th 2020 edition
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