August 29, 2020
Center Left Capitalism as the Key to Prosperity, By Victor Menaldo
Capitalism, in its modern form, is only about 250 years old and was ushered in during the industrial revolution. The advent of general-purpose technologies (GPT) transformed the scale of production and put productivity on an exponential growth path for the first time in human history. This ended the Malthusian Trap whereby increased economic productivity engendered…
August 25, 2020
New PE Forum Podcast Episode – Is Cancel Culture Threatening Free Speech?
8/21/2020 – Susan Whiting, Jamie Mayerfeld, Brian Leung, Mark Smith, Victor Menaldo and James Long on Is Cancel Culture Threatening Free Speech? https://soundcloud.com/political-economy-forum-at-university-of-washington/uw-pe-forum-podcast-3-is-cancel-culture-threatening-free-speech “If we don’t try to solve the fundamental problem behind the speech that we dislike and work only to mitigate the symptom — by censoring it — we drive the problem somewhere…
August 6, 2020
A Tale of TikTok and Tariffs – US Technology Policy towards China – By Victor Menaldo and Nicolas Wittstock
As China has become a more assertive international actor, US calls for active industrial policy to counter growing Chinese technological capabilities have grown. Allegedly, China’s technology companies are undermining US companies and hurt the US economy. Often “forced technology transfer” is invoked to justify the recent escalation in anti-Chinese technology policy. Yet, we argue…
August 5, 2020
Is Avocado Demand Driving Cartel Violence? By Megan Erickson and Lucas Owen
Has the growth of the avocado industry caused a surge in violence among Mexican Drug cartels? While the conventional wisdom in the media is that it has, a shibboleth avocado farmers themselves tend to concur with, our research suggests differently. In the last ten years, the demand for avocados has grown rapidly. Conscious of…
