Morten Jerven on African Economic Growth

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Philosophy, Science, Social Sciences, Ethics, Economics, Books, History, Business, Courses, Education, Society & Culture, Interviews

4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2015

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Morten Jerven of Simon Frasier University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his new book, Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong. Jerven, who will be joining Noragric at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences this fall, argues that economists have misread the economic history of Africa, ignoring successful episodes of economic growth while trying to explain a perpetual malaise that does not exist. Jerven is critical of many of the attempts to explain growth using econometric techniques and suggests that a richer approach is necessary that is aware of the particular circumstances facing poor countries.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.2	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.2	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:32.0	Today is June 4, 2015, and my guest is Wharton-Jervin of Simon Fraser University.
0:38.4	His latest book is Africa.
0:40.3	Why economists get it wrong?
0:42.4	Wharton, welcome back to Econ Talks.
0:44.8	Thank you, Russ.
0:46.4	What's wrong with the economist consensus view about Africa and its economic performance?
0:52.2	What is that consensus view and why is it wrong?
0:56.0	The most fundamental mistake that mainstream economists have made is that they've been
1:01.6	focused for the past two decades on explaining something that never happened.
1:08.7	Economists have since the 1990s been focusing on explaining why economic growth has failed
1:15.1	in Africa or why there has been a chronic failure of economic growth in Africa.
1:20.6	And moreover, it has moved away from explaining slow growth to asking why these African nations
1:29.9	have failed permanently as in books such as Why Nations Fail.
1:37.7	However, the problem and the puzzle is that African economists have, if you look at
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.