Noel Johnson: evaluation

Transcript context

…But it’s much higher GDP per capita than most of the rest of Western Europe, maybe Luxembourg aside. Yeah, yeah. It’s a really interesting thing. They act like they are a culturally homogenous territory, which they are. But at the same time, they have four different language groups packed into a relatively small place. They have a lot of ruggedness, but they still interact. If you look at the literature, people have looked at preferences over welfare. And there are big differences between German-speaking and French-speaking and Italian-speaking regions within Switzerland. So I don’t know the answer. I think there’s something in there that has to do with size, that it can work in a place the size of Switzerland. They definitely have a national identity, which is very strong. And I’m not sure exactly how that emerged. One could tell stories about the Swiss being surrounded for so long and cutting off the mountain passes and acting in this way that sometimes I hear. But otherwise, I actually don’t know the answer. Large volcanic eruptions earlier in history. From an economic point of view, what’s the single most interesting thing we know about them?…

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