Looking to exchange ideas and learn about what matters.
Alexander
Karma: 4
Alexander’s Shortform
I’m Alexander. I’m a software engineer who loves economics. I don’t have an official credential as my major was in computing, but I enjoy reading economics, and do it almost daily. It’s my favourite nonfiction genre. I’ve read and enjoyed Cowen, Stiglitz, Caplan, Hanson, Banerjee and Duflo, etc. I’ve taken one economics class under Borland, who’s done some work on economic progress, such as showing that learning-by-doing plays a role in the evolution of countries to greater specialisation in production (Yang and Borland 1991).
Some of my favourite economics books include Stubborn Attachments by Cowen, Creating a Learning Society by Stiglitz and Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo. I find myself more interested in cutting-edge growth than catch-up growth, and would like to understand how cutting-edge growth works, and how we can sustain it.
I’m interested in shaping my career to have marginally more impact on economic progress than I currently do. I plan to do that by working on building a new vertical rather than working in a competitive space with many slightly differentiated alternatives. More competitive markets, with many firms, are likely to be less innovative.
In many discussions about economic progress, concerns around safety and sustainability were raised.
I really liked how Tyler Cowen used the phrase “sustainable economic growth” in Stubborn Attachments to encompass concerns around safety and sustainability. My view is that progress which inevitably leads us off a cliff isn’t real progress because over some time interval it approaches zero.
I find that framing progress in terms of resource efficiency to be useful. A lot of people equate economic progress with an image of factories spewing smoke into the atmosphere. However, progress to me is about using our scarce resources more efficiently, and is thus inherently about sustainability.
Throughout the history of economic progress, we have become increasingly capable of creating more economic value using less scarce resources. E.g. today’s cars, stoves, computers, lightbulbs, generators, motors, etc. are more efficient than their predecessors. In my view, our goal here is to extend this trend into the future, e.g. by creating fusion reactors that produce one kilowatt hour for 5% the price it costs today, and by creating computer algorithms that increase the efficiency of our scarce labour force and so on.
Is it too parochial to equate economic progress with resource efficiency? Or does it make some sense?
Thank you Jason. That’s a very thoughtful response. I will check out those recommendations.