🧵1/5 Acemoglu or Paul Baran’s Prize?

Acemoglu’s argument on settler versus non-settler colonialism was first presented, in almost the same language, by the Marxist economist Paul Baran decades before the publication of AJR 2002 in his book The Political Economy of Growth.

https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/1845763241147785723

Baran argues that the divergence between colonies such as US/Australia versus colonies in Africa/Asia has to be sought in the fact that in the former case “Western Europeans…. SETTLED in those areas..” (pg 273).

The 6-day working week is a terrible idea. Other than being a pleasing optic for people who like to see super-exploited workers there is no empirical evidence to suggest that overworked workers produce productivity gains. In fact, the evidence points to the contrary.

Thread 1/4 Consider this intriguing study from Iceland. In 2015 and 2017, in response to campaigning by trade unions and civil society organisations, two major trials of a shorter working week were initi- ated by Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic national government 2/4

Pakistan's Economic Performance under IK in 4 graphs:

I could go over a list of indicators but for now 4 will suffice:

1) GDP per capita: Even by Pakistan's dismal economic standards, IK's regime was truly exceptional: GDP per capita FELL after a very long time. 2) Unprecedented Inflation: ALL quintiles experienced RAPID inflation (including food inflation). Thus, with a falling GDP per capita (figure 1) and increasing prices, Pakistan essentially experienced a stagnating economy with rising prices: another historic achievement of IK.