The lecture tried to show the link between economic growth and rising living standards for the general public. This is something that Dracula noticed when he encountered a “normal” modern house:
I’ve been a nobleman for 400 years. I’ve lived in castles and palaces among the richest people of any age. Never….never! Have I stood in greater luxury than surrounds me now. This is a chamber of marvels. There isn’t a king, or queen or emperor that I have ever known or eaten who would step into this room and ever agree to leave it again. I knew the future would bring wonders. I did not know it would make them ordinary.
Here is an overview and discussion of a wealth tax:
I provided some pessimistic views on transformative breakthroughs. But every now and then I notice the power of steady, incremental progress. For example:
The purpose of this session is to realise that value comes from satisfying people’s needs, and that this leads to a broad and insightful realisation that:
Competition is when anyone else tries to satisfy the same customer needs that you do.
Innovation is trying to find better ways to satisfy your customers needs.
Entrepreneurship is successful when you understand your customers needs better than they do.
Steve Job’s famous advice was to not listen to your customers. This is similar to Tyler Cowen’s “law of interesting content” – which is that interviewers should have the conversation that they want, not what they think their listeners want.
Here’s an example of how Starbucks creates value for me:
This concept is closely related to “Jobs to be done”, but here’s my review of ‘Competing Against Luck‘. Here’s my bleaker application of value to Apple’s iPhone innovation:
For a more traditional, textbook treatment for demand curves, see here:
A great application of consumer surplus is here:
Can you think of something that delivers a lot of consumer surplus for you? What’s the most consumer surplus you’ve ever received?
Finally, here’s a quick quiz on understanding value.
Learning Objectives: Link a thorough concept of value with implications for competition and innovation. Derive demand curves.
Cutting edge theory: Jobs to be done
Focus on diversity: Economists typically take preferences as given, but we can provide a theory of demand reflecting “the individual’s commitment to an intelligible universe” (p.52), where goods are considered to be a visible reflection of culture. Mary Douglas (1921-2007) was one of the world’s most admired social anthropologists, and her 1979 book, ‘The World of Goods’, provided a rich and compelling illumination of consumption patterns.
The training scene from Rocky IV demonstrates the difference between the USSR (technologically sophisticated but lacking in heart) and the US (backward but free).
What should Widodo do? Indonesia is a large, populous middle-income country. It faces no major near-term security threats. It has a small manufacturing base and no major non-commodity export sectors. What is the best non-bureaucratic 10 page economic development briefing document and set of prescriptions that one could write for Indonesia’s president?
Here’s my analysis of Belarus, using many complementary concepts.
Learning Objectives: Understand the causes of a sovereign debt crisis. Understand the role international agencies play in managing a debt crisis.
Focus on diversity: The highly influential paper on sovereign debt tipping points was co authored by Carmen Reinhart, a Cuban-born economist who became Chief Economist of the World Bank in 2020.
