Monthly Archives: November 2012

Technology, people and place

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Diego Comin, Mikhail Dmitriev, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg have written a fascinating summary of their work on the diffusion of technology, published as a CEPR working paper. The headline is that distance matters, and that the diffusion process follows the same kind of pattern seen in the transmission of epidemics.

The authors note that their data (covering a large number of technologies) strongly confirms the  pattern of east-to-west diffusion of technology described by Jared Diamond in his fantastic book [amazon_link id=”0099302780″ target=”_blank” ]Guns, Germs and Steel[/amazon_link]. The argument there was that geographical latitude explained the success of certain important agricultural innovations. So how could it also matter for the spread of, say, ATMs, cellphones or TVs? “Distance is a significantly more important impediment across parallels than across meridians.” The VoxEU authors suggest this is because technologies are spread – like diseases – by people, and the patterns of social contact for reasons of history and geography are more prevalent east-to-west than north-to-south.

[amazon_image id=”0099302780″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years[/amazon_image]

There is a forward-looking aspect to this, of course. Trends in the movement of people do change over time, and have changed with globalisation. More significant, anybody thinking about long-term growth needs to think about the adoption of ideas. Most new ideas will come from outside the borders of one country, attached to people from elsewhere. One cannot think about innovation (among other things) without thinking about immigration – as Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan argued in their book [amazon_link id=”069115631X” target=”_blank” ]Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”069115631X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future[/amazon_image]

Culture in austere times

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In the evenings I’m still reading Dominic Sandbrook’s [amazon_link id=”0141032154″ target=”_blank” ]State of Emergency: Britain 1970-74[/amazon_link], a book too big to carry around on the tube (although I’d never read it on an e-reader). A passage about the resurgence in high culture against the background of an ailing economy and bitter strikes struck a chord. Sandbrook quotes David Lodge in 1971 saying there was “unprecedented cultural pluralism which allows, in all the arts, an astonishing variety of styles to flourish simultaneously.” It was a rich era for British fiction, for blockbuster exhibitions like the Tutankhamun show at the British Museum (I queued for hours as a schoolgirl to get into that), or Turner and Constable at the Tate. In classical music, the 70s brought operas by Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett was at his peak, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies came to prominence. The Observer in 1975 commented on the mass enthusiasm for “sales of LPs, prints and paperbacks; the viewing statistics for opera, ballet and drama on television.” It added that there was a surge too in amateur dramatics, Sunday painting, community arts centres and other indicators of eagerness to participate.

[amazon_image id=”1846140315″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970-1974[/amazon_image]

The chord this struck was with an excellent book about the 1930s, Richard Overy’s [amazon_link id=”0141003251″ target=”_blank” ]The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilisation 1919-39[/amazon_link]. He too made the link between economic upheaval and huge enthusiasm for seriousness in the arts and books. Overy highlighted, for example,  the astonishing popular success of the Left Book Club, and political and literary publications.

[amazon_image id=”0141003251″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilisation, 1919 – 1939[/amazon_image]

Are we experiencing the same kind of phenomenon now? One aspect that stands out for me personally is the growth of huge audiences for modern dance and classical ballet – I’ve been attending performances for years, and while these were considered challenging, minority interests 20 years ago, they’re tremendously popular now. Another is the passion so many people have for serious debate – lectures and debates are packed. The Festival of Economics at the weekend was one manifestation of it. There is certainly an appetite to understand what’s happening in the world.

So, another parallel between the 1930s, the 1970s and the 2010s: a cultural revival in austere times?

Economic festivities

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The UK’s first Festival of Economics in Bristol on 23-24 November was a triumph, I think it’s safe to say. Despite horrible weather affecting travel, around 1400 people attended altogether over four sessions, and the debate was fantastic: lively, informed, engaged. So already plans are underfoot for next year’s follow-up – and warmest thanks to this year’s sponsors and supporters, the Government Economic Service, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Princeton University Press, the Royal Economic Society and Wiley, as well as Business West and Bristol Chamber – and my huge thanks to the leading spirit of the Festival of Ideas, Andrew Kelly, who responded enthusiastically earlier this year to my tweeted suggestion that the UK needed a Festival of Economics. The videos of the event will be online shortly – I’ll update this with a link when they are. The live tweets are under the hashtag #economicsfest.

I went to Bristol with one book to give to someone and (as is the way with books) came back with four to read: [amazon_link id=”1847087027″ target=”_blank” ]Estates[/amazon_link] by Lynsey Hanley, [amazon_link id=”0745327443″ target=”_blank” ]The Slow Food Story[/amazon_link] by Geoff Andrews, [amazon_link id=”1846684641″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter of Our Disconnect[/amazon_link] by Susan Maushart and [amazon_link id=”0199274533″ target=”_blank” ]Competing in Capabilities[/amazon_link] by John Sutton. The Festival pop-up bookstore was provided by the fab Arnolfini bookshop. I think next year we need to include an Economics Cafe with some debates….

Festival books

Festival of Economics

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It’s an exciting day – the kick-off of what I think is the UK’s first Festival of Economics, taking place in Bristol tonight and tomorrow. There’s a fantastic line-up, including a number of authors of excellent books. So here’s the Festival bibliography:

David Smith [amazon_link id=”1781250111″ target=”_blank” ]Free Lunch: Easily Digestible Economics[/amazon_link]

John Kay [amazon_link id=”1846682886″ target=”_blank” ]Obliquity[/amazon_link]

Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson [amazon_link id=”0230392547″ target=”_blank” ]Going South: Why Britain Will Have A 3rd World Economy by 2014[/amazon_link]

Daniel Stedman-Jones [amazon_link id=”0691151571″ target=”_blank” ]Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics[/amazon_link]

Geoff Andrews [amazon_link id=”0745327443″ target=”_blank” ]The Slow Food Story: Politics and Pleasure[/amazon_link]

Lynsey Hanley [amazon_link id=”1847087027″ target=”_blank” ]Estates: An Intimate History[/amazon_link]

Vicky Pryce [amazon_link id=”184954400X” target=”_blank” ]Greekonomics: The Euro Crisis and Why Politicians Don’t Get It[/amazon_link]

Peter Marsh [amazon_link id=”0300117779″ target=”_blank” ]The New Industrial Revolution[/amazon_link]

Diane Coyle [amazon_link id=”0691156298″ target=”_blank” ]The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as if the Future Matters [/amazon_link]and [amazon_link id=”1907994041″ target=”_blank” ]What’s The Use of Economics: Teaching the Dismal Science After the Crisis?[/amazon_link]

The hashtag for the events is #economicsfest and the podcasts will be online in a few days’ time.

 

The Social Life of Information

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Browsing my shelves gently, nibbling at books, I picked up for the first time in ages [amazon_link id=”0875847625″ target=”_blank” ]The Social Life of Information[/amazon_link] by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (2000). I’ve loved this book for providing me with the insight, so often validated by life, that while everyone thinks computers are predictable and people are unpredictable, it’s actually the other way round.

The book is about the social context in which digital technologies are used, my preoccupation since the mid-1990s. Today I came across this passage contrasting information (which we hold and can pass around) and knowledge:

“Knowledge is something we digest rather than merely hold. It entails the knower’s understanding and some degree of commitment. Thus while one person often has conflicting information, he or she will not usually have conflicting knowledge. And while it seems quite reasonable to say, ‘I’ve got the information but I don’t understand it’, it seems less reasonable to say, ‘I know but I don’t understand’, or ‘I have the knowledge but I can’t see what it means.’” (p120)

Machines do information, knowledge needs people, they conclude.

[amazon_image id=”0875847625″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Social Life of Information[/amazon_image]