Tag: famine

The End of Feudalism

Posted in economic institutions, history of economic growth, history of technology, history of trade and commerce, property rights

Custom played such a large role in governing feudal institutions that they were resistant to change. Feudalism could only be shaken by substantial changes to the external environment, and those changes finally came…

Why Nations Fail: 
Extractive and Inclusive Institutions

Posted in economic institutions, facts of economic growth, political institutions, property rights, technological progress

Acemoglu and Robinson’s goal is to explain why some nations are rich and others are poor. They present a theory based on the interaction between political and economic institutions. Casual empiricism suggests that its explanatory power is quite strong…

The Russian Odyssey: 1900-1924

Posted in economic institutions, history of economic growth, political institutions

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Russia went from autocracy, to revolution and civil war, to communist rule. Economically, it went from an impoverished market economy, to War Communism and the New Economic Policy, to the beginnings of the command economy…