Dani Rodrik: belief

Transcript context

…But not ideology? So, you’re an economic structuralist? No. . . . Let me put it this way. If France was not in Western Europe but in Eastern Europe, I don’t think it would be the kind of democracy or the kind of industrial economy it came to be. I think having the Netherlands in the North and Britain to the West, I think both the competition, the benchmarking, and the ideas, I think in that way geography made a difference. But geography, it sort of enables the transfer of ideas and who are you looking at as what kind of a country you want to be. In many ways, France had the initial conditions that would have made it look more like a Central or Eastern European country than a Western European one. But the fact that it’s part of Western Europe I think has to do that it was it was so much closer to Britain. I think you see the same about why is it that Vietnam has developed in the way that it has after it opened up its economy. I think if Vietnam was located in Latin America or Central America, I don’t think it would have been half the miracle that it was. Keep in mind, Vietnam is still poorer than Bolivia, which is the poorest country in South America. So, Vietnam has yet to show it’s a success.…

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