My year-end post on Global Developments is up—if you have any comments / feedback over the previous year of posts, please chime in! One Year of Global Developments: www.global-developments.org/p/one-year-o...

was tinkering with some OCR and decided to update an old econ history OCR example. What a difference a couple of years makes: old: github.com/apoorvalal/h... new: github.com/apoorvalal/h...

Quick 🧵 on American aid spending, to accompany my new Substack (link below) US aid obligations have remained remarkably steady in real terms since WWII, rarely exiting a band of $20-60 billion in 2023 dollars. Surprisingly, the year with the most aid obligations was... 1948!

Striking set of graphs from @global-developments.org - for years South Korea & Taiwan received more US aid than all of Africa combined www.global-developments.org/p/a-world-wi...

New 🌐Global Developments🌐 post: How Do Exchange Rates Work, Anyway? Folk wisdom, dollar dominance, and hot money www.global-developments.org/p/how-do-exc...

New 🌐Global Developments🌐 post: How Do Exchange Rates Work, Anyway? Folk wisdom, dollar dominance, and hot money www.global-developments.org/p/how-do-exc...

Excellent post from @global-developments.org (with a moving personal story). No, South Korea Was Not Poorer Than Kenya in 1960 www.global-developments.org/p/no-south-k...

In 1960, South Korea and Taiwan were educational outliers. Hugely important graph by @global-developments.org, echoing a point made in @drodrik.bsky.social (1995). This fact is crucial to understanding East Asia’s economic success.

New Post: Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen? And Other Simple Questions www.global-developments.org/p/why-did-th...

New Post: Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen? And Other Simple Questions www.global-developments.org/p/why-did-th...

My colleague @MacabeKeliher just published this excellent article about the role of Taiwan Machinery Manufacturing Corporations, as SOE, in Taiwan's postwar economic development. Part of what he calls the "archival turn" in studies of the developmental state. Interesting stuff!

I always loved Lee Kuan Yew's description of Korean protest: "The Koreans are a fearsome people. When they riot, they are as organized and nearly as disciplined as the riot police who confront them... When their workers and students fight in the streets... they look like soldiers at war."

What do we call a poor country—"underdeveloped", "developing", an "emerging market"? A potted history (and Global Dev post) on our changing words for poverty—the rhetoric of underdevelopment:

"Asian values are incompatible with democracy"

What do we call a poor country—"underdeveloped", "developing", an "emerging market"? A potted history (and Global Dev post) on our changing words for poverty—the rhetoric of underdevelopment:

The AEA/ASSA meetings are in SF in January. Workers at several conference hotels, including 2 headquarters hotels, are on strike. @aaronsojourner.org put together a very useful explainer. aaronsojourner.org/hotel-worker...

New paper shows that recent $15+ minimum wage hikes have no disemployment effects. static1.squarespace.com/static/5e0fd...

🚨 New Blog! 🚨 GDP is everywhere in development. But in Zambia in 2010, the national accounts were prepared by just one (1!) person. How much can we trust developing country GDP? A 🧵 and post on Morten Jerven's 2013 classic, Poor Numbers, on how African GDP is actually made—

🚨 New Blog! 🚨 GDP is everywhere in development. But in Zambia in 2010, the national accounts were prepared by just one (1!) person. How much can we trust developing country GDP? A 🧵 and post on Morten Jerven's 2013 classic, Poor Numbers, on how African GDP is actually made—

Q: why does Gujarat have a higher industrial share than other Indian states? Is this a longstanding historical difference, the product of policy, something else? (Chart from Data for India)

Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline

I made a Google quiz using the poems listed on the paper’s OSF site if you want to try your luck at guessing which are human and which are LLM. forms.gle/nGCGawDb9c6f...

ok I've figured out how to add people now, I thought someone would have already made this but does not appear to be so... Growth & Development Starter Park (distinct from economic history starter packs of which there are TWO already ;-) go.bsky.app/SmQgVK4

It's alive! My book now has a webpage on the University of California Press @ucpress.bsky.social website: www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the... Will be available open access in April 2025!

On Here now