In today’s video, we discuss a topic critical to understanding economic growth: the power of institutions.

To better shed light on this, we're going to look at an example that's both tragic and extreme.

In 1945, North and South Korea were divided, ending...

In previous videos, you learned two things.

First, that there can be large disparities in economic wealth among different countries. And second, you learned that one key factor drives that disparity: growth rate. As we said, it changes everything. But...

In this video, which is also featured in Marginal Revolution University’s Everyday Economics course, we discuss the key factors behind the rise in innovation and entrepreneurship over the past couple of centuries.

The economic historian Deirdre McCloskey...

In the first video in this section on The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth, you learned a basic fact of economic wealth—that countries can vary widely in standard of living. Specifically, you learned how variations in real GDP per capita can set...

Spider-Man fans likely recall Uncle Ben advising his nephew, Peter Parker, that “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

As it turns out, that sage wisdom is also pretty applicable to the U.S. Federal Reserve System (aka the Fed). The Fed...

Economic growth doesn’t happen at a steady pace; there are ebbs and flows. Prosperity on the national level depends on a country having good institutions in place. The factors of production – human capital, physical capital, and ideas – are also critical...

How would you like to pay $417.00 per sheet of toilet paper?

Sound crazy? It’s not as crazy as you may think. Here’s a story of how this happened in Zimbabwe.

Around 2000, Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, was in need of cash to bribe his enemies...

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and signaled the start of the Great Recession. One key cause of that recession was a failure of financial intermediaries, or the institutions that link different kinds of savers to borrowers.

We...

Here's a quick growth conundrum, to get you thinking.

Consider two countries at the close of World War II—Germany and Japan. At that point, they've both suffered heavy population losses. Both countries have had their infrastructure devastated. So...

We know that there are rich countries, poor countries, and countries somewhere in between. Economically speaking, Japan isn’t Denmark. Denmark isn’t Madagascar, and Madagascar isn’t Argentina. These countries are all different.

But how different are they...