“First perfected by Cortés in Mexico, it was based on the observation that the best way for the Spanish to subdue opposition was to capture the indigenous leader. This strategy enabled the Spanish to claim the accumulated wealth of the… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“Globalization made the large open spaces of the Americas, its “open frontiers,” valuable. Often these frontiers were only mythically open, since they were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were brutally dispossessed. All the same, the scramble for this newly valuable… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“AUSTRALIA, LIKE THE UNITED STATES, experienced a different path to inclusive institutions than the one taken by England. The same revolutions that shook England… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“As such, the usual pattern of interaction between a critical juncture and existing institutional differences leading to further institutional and economic divergence played out… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“Lack of creative destruction and innovation is not the only reason why there are severe limits to growth under extractive institutions. The history of… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“As with France, an important consequence of the British Industrial Revolution for China and Japan was military vulnerability. China was humbled by British sea… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“Though the extractive institutions that the Mayas created produced sufficient wealth for the cities to flourish and the elite to become wealthy and generate… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“THERE ARE HUGE DIFFERENCES in living standards around the world. Even the poorest citizens of the United States have incomes and access to health… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“The Maya’s economy was based on extensive occupational specialization, with skilled potters, weavers, woodworkers, and tool and ornament makers. They also traded obsidian, jaguar… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“In the same way, current Chinese growth has nothing to do with Chinese values or changes in Chinese culture; it results from a process… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“NATIONS FAIL TODAY because their extractive economic institutions do not create the incentives needed for people to save, invest, and innovate. Extractive political institutions… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“The geography hypothesis claims that the great divide between rich and poor countries is created by geographical differences. Many poor countries, such as those… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“Politics is the process by which a society chooses the rules that will govern it.” — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
“The pattern of vicious circle depicted by the transition between Haile Selassie and Mengistu, or between the British colonial governors of Sierra Leone and… — Daron Acemoğlu Copy Share Image
