Nicholas Bloom: belief

Transcript context

…Yes, of course. My mum is Scottish. I don’t think they’re that different, actually. Having now lived in the US, even the US-UK difference I don’t think is enormous. Increasingly, as I travel around the world, you realize that there are huge differences. There are huge differences between Northern and Southern Europe. It strikes me as quite striking, actually. England and Scotland are very similar. We effectively have the same legal system, the same educational standards. My mother-in-law who’s in Glasgow — I should send her this podcast. She will probably kill me for saying that. The Scots, I should point out, have had some of the most successful members of the British government, like Gordon Brown and various prime ministers. They’re overrepresented. I don’t think they’re very different. I think, in fact, in reverse — they’re really pretty similar. But the Scots have done much better fighting against the pandemic in the public sector. If you look at globally known brands, I know England has a greater population, but it seems to do disproportionately better than Scotland does. So, it seems to me, the two cultures are not that similar across critical margins. Maybe there are small differences in an absolute sense, but those compound into large differences in final outcomes.…

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