666. This Is How Progress Happens

Economists don’t usually talk about “culture.” But Joel Mokyr argues that it’s the engine of innovation — and the Nobel Prize committee agreed. Stephen Dubner sits down for a thousand-year conversation (including advice!) with the new Nobel laureate.

• SOURCES:

• Joel Mokyr (economics.northwestern.edu/people/directory/jo…), economic historian at Northwestern University.

• RESOURCES:

• Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000 (press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691265…), by Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr, and, Guido Tabellini (2025).

• "The Outsize Role of Immigrants in US Innovation (nber.org/digest/20233/outsize-role-immigrants-…)," by Shai Bernstein, Rebecca Diamond, Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada (NBER, 2023).

• A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (amzn.to/3Pg7wce), by Joel Mokyr (2016).

• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (amzn.to/4rZ7fJw), by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012).

• "The Economics of Being Jewish (bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.northwestern.edu/d…)," by Joel Mokyr (Critical Review, 2011).

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