Can a Phone Be a Cow? (with Philip Auerswald)

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🗓️ 22 June 2026

⏱️ 80 minutes

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Summary

Can a phone be a cow? It could in 1990s Bangladesh. This was the insight of a small number of mobile phone market pioneers who helped catalyze the spread of the greatest technological revolution in human history. Listen as George Mason University economist Philip Auerswald speaks to EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how the extension of connectivity to traditionally excluded populations led to wide-scale transformations in productivity. They discuss the role of little-known entrepreneurs such as Iqbal Quadir and innovators like Claude Shannon in bringing the mobile phone to the entire world. Other topics include William Nordhaus's paper on the cost of illumination as a powerful metric of human progress, Schumpeter's notion of innovation as new combinations, and what Auerswald calls the most important question the field of economics can ask: How much of human progress is inevitable, and how much depends on the determination of remarkable individuals?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.9	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Sholem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Go to EconTalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.2	You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.7	Our email address is mail at econTalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:36.6	Today is May 26, 2026.
0:39.3	And before introducing today's guest, I want to let listeners know that we'll be doing an e-contact book club around the Iliad by Homer.
0:48.3	The first episode with the Edo Gavroni of Shlem College, who has been teaching the Elliott for over a decade, will air July 6th.
0:55.8	It will provide some useful context on the book to help you get started, and I hope
0:59.6	inspire you to read it.
1:00.8	Additional episodes, I don't know how many, will air in the weeks to follow, at least one,
1:06.3	maybe two.
1:07.5	And we'll be using the Fagel's translation, but there are many others to choose from.
1:11.9	And now for today's guest, economist and author Philip Aurswald of Georgia-Basian University.
1:17.5	Philip was last year in September of 2017 talking about populism.
1:22.4	Our topic for today is his latest book with the delightful title,
1:26.6	A Phone Is a Cow, How Pioneers of the Mobile
1:30.5	Revolution Help Millions Lift Themselves Out of Poverty.
1:35.0	Philip, welcome back to Econ Talk.
1:37.4	Thanks so much for having me.
1:38.7	It's a pleasure.
1:39.8	So let's start with the title of the book.
	...

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