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Joel Mokyr – Two Paths to Prosperity

    Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000

    Conversations with Tyler | 08 July 2026 | 0h 46m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify

    Interview with Joel Mokyr about his book Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000, co-authored with Avner Greif and Guido Tabellini. Argues that Europe’s divergence from China stems from differing social organisations: European corporations versus Chinese clans for local public goods. The Catholic Church weakened extended families in Europe, fostering non-kin cooperation like universities and guilds. Conversely, China’s imperial bureaucracy leveraged local clans. This cultural shift led to Europe’s embrace of intellectual property rights and a concept of progress, driving technological advancement. The “Industrial Enlightenment” – applying scientific knowledge for material betterment – propelled Europe, contrasting with China’s technological stagnation after 1400.

    Book cover

    See also the episode with Guido Tabellini.

    Meir Kohn – Commerce, Predation, and Production

      Ideas and Lives | 22 March 2021 | 0h 56m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
      Interview with Meir Kohn about his manuscript Commerce, Predation, and Production. Discusses his historically-based theory of economic growth; his life journey from birth in Czechoslovakia, to growing up in England, to joining a kibbutz in Israel, and to becoming an accomplished economist in the US; his intellectual journey from econometrics, to finance and banking; and finally to the lessons of economic history to inform economic progress.

      This is the first of several posts inspired by Arnold Kling’s recommended conservative reading list.

      Michael Bordo – Path Dependence in Financial/Monetary Systems

        The Economic History Podcast | 2 December 2025 | 1h 01m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
        Interview with Michael Bordo discussing his work on monetary history and financial crises. Contrasts the US financial system’s instability with Canada’s stability due to its early adoption of branch banking and strict regulation. Challenges standard views on the UK’s “Great Inflation”, arguing that it was primarily driven by accommodative fiscal policy rather than purely monetary factors. Emphasises the role of institutional path dependency and slow learning in economic history. Draws from his papers Growing Up to Stability? Financial Globalization, Financial Development and Financial Crises, Why Canada Didn’t Have a Banking Crisis in 2008, Muddling Through or Tunnelling Through?’ UK Monetary and Fiscal Exceptionalism and the Great Inflation, and What if Alexander Hamilton Had Been Argentinean?

        Edmond Smith – Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power

          New Books in Economic and Business History | 28 October 2025 | 0h 57m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
          Interview with Edmond Smith about his book Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power, 1660-1800. Argues that Britain’s ascent to global power stemmed from a combination of innovation in key industries (wool, iron, cotton) and the widespread exploitation of land, labor, and empire. Highlights the connection between the Scientific Revolution, technological advancements (like steam engines), and extractive and violent practices, such as the slave trade. The state supported both domestic innovation (patents, Royal Society) and overseas militarized mercantilism, which underpinned Britain’s economic growth.

          See also the History Extra interview with Edmond Smith about his earlier book Merchants: The Community that Shaped England’s Trade and Empire, 1550-1650. See also another 17 episodes on the Industrial Revolution.

          Kim Bowes – Surviving Rome

            The Economic and Political History Podcast | 4 October 2025 | 0h 56m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
            Interview with Kim Bowes about her book Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent. Discusses insights about the economic lives of the non-elite Roman majority from new archaeological data like Egyptian papyri and Pompeii coin finds. Explains that ordinary Romans were “hustlers” who relied on multiple income streams, that wage labor typically supplemented the incomes of smallholder farmers rather than providing a sole livelihood, challenges Moses Finley’s subsistence model, and notes the blurry lines between enslaved/free and urban/rural categories.

            How Henry VIII Accidentally Started the Industrial Revolution, with Anton Howes

              Works in Progress | 29 July 2025 | 1h 11m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
              Interview with Anton Howes discussing how Henry VIII turned Britain into an economic backwater – making it the unlikeliest place for the Industrial Revolution to happen. But, he explains it only took a small cabal of people who understood the problems of the time to turn the fate of the country (and thus, the world) around.

              See other episodes with Anton Howes and make sure you subscribe to Age of Invention, his Substack. I also recommend the Works in Progress newsletter.

              David Engerman on Apostles of Development: Six Economists and the World They Made

                New Books in Economic and Business History | 17 July 2025 | 0h 47m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
                Interview with David Engerman about his book Apostles of Development: Six Economists and the World They Made. Recounts the work of six economists, all former classmates at Cambridge University, who reflected and shaped international development from the mid-1950s to the 2010s.

                The False History of American Capitalism | Donald Boudreaux

                  The Human Progress Podcast | 18 July 2025 | 1h 11m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
                  Interview with Donald Boudreaux about his book The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism, co-authored with Phil Gramm. Argues that The Industrial Revolution saw wages rise due to efficiency, not exploitation, and child labor was common before factories; monopolies grew big by lowering prices and expanding output, benefiting consumers, not harming them; the Great Depression resulted from bad monetary policy and government intervention, not laissez-faire capitalism; tariffs are based on a myth of a lost golden age, whereas US industrial output and living standards are at all-time highs; and the Great Recession was caused by government pressuring banks to issue subprime mortgages.