Welcome to my economics blog, where you'll find my reflections on the economic forces that shape our world in unexpected ways. Why do some societies require security guards in tiny shops while others trust street vendors with unattended merchandise? How did an island geography transform Britain's economic trajectory? Whether investigating institutional transitions, historical financial innovations, or the boundaries of economic science, each entry aims to present rigorous economic thinking in an accessible yet thoughtful manner, inviting readers to see familiar realities through a different analytical frame.
March 17, 2025
Imagine walking into a small boutique shop in Moscow and being greeted not just by a salesperson, but by a security guard—something that happens in virtually every Russian store, regardless of size. Now picture a street vendor in Oslo leaving their merchandise unattended with just an honor box for payments while they take a bathroom break. What explains this stark difference? One word: trust.
In discussion section today, we were diving into German reunification, and several students expressed outright contempt when we got to the part where the assigned reading used organ donor sign-up rates as a measure of trust. But as we unpacked it, I realized this methodological choice reveals something fascinating about how economists attempt to measure seemingly intangible social factors—and why these measurements matter enormously for understanding economic outcomes.
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March 13, 2025
Imagine a world where anyone could claim anything as "scientific" without the possibility of being proven wrong. A world where astrology, alchemy, and astronomy all held equal credibility. This isn't just a philosophical thought experiment—it's the reality we'd face without the crucial concept I'm about to share with you.
In my years of teaching, I've developed a tradition: on the first day of class, I ask students a seemingly simple question: "What makes a theory scientific?" The responses typically include characteristics like "evidence-based," "replicable," or "peer-reviewed." While these are important, I'm always astonished by how rarely students mention what is perhaps the single most powerful idea in the history of scientific thinking: falsifiability.
March 10, 2025
The collapse of communism in the early 1990s triggered one of the most significant waves of institutional transformation in modern history. However, not all post-communist transitions followed the same trajectory.
It started with a classroom discussion on Allen's 2001 analysis of the Soviet economy and Djankov's research on post-communist transitions. As a teaching assistant from Russia, I noticed something striking about my homeland's trajectory compared to other former communist states. Three decades after the Soviet collapse, Russia continues to experience institutional volatility while many other post-communist countries have found relative stability. This divergence isn't merely about geography, natural resources, or Western assistance—it reflects a deeper historical pattern I will refer to as "double institutional vacuum."
December 28, 2024
When Charles II abruptly shut down the Exchequer in 1672 and refused to pay his debts, he unwittingly set in motion a financial revolution that would transform England from an unreliable royal borrower into the world's first fiscal superpower. This royal default—essentially England's financial rock bottom—led to the creation of the Bank of England, the development of sophisticated public debt markets, and a dramatic shift from taxing the rich directly to taxing consumption through duties on everyday items. Within a century, England's government went from being unable to secure loans to managing a staggering national debt over 200 times larger than before, all while funding global military campaigns that far exceeded what its population size should have permitted. This remarkable transformation from royal bankruptcy to financial dominance represents one of the most consequential institutional developments in economic history—one that fundamentally reshaped the relationship between government, taxation, and public debt, ultimately creating the conditions that would support Britain's emergence as a global economic power.
August 7, 2022
Picture a map of Europe in 1400, dotted with thriving cities. Now fast-forward to 1800 and observe a startling transformation—the economic landscape has inverted. The once-prosperous breadbaskets have stagnated, while former backwaters pulse with industrial might. This isn't coincidence, but perhaps one of history's most surprising economic ironies.
What if the very soil that made regions wealthy for millennia became their economic shackle during the crucial dawn of industrialization?
April 20, 2022
Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Great Britain and not elsewhere? This transformative historical moment—perhaps the most significant economic shift since the dawn of agriculture—has puzzled historians and economists for generations. While coal deposits, technological innovation, and stable institutions certainly played roles, one fundamental factor has been surprisingly overlooked: the simple fact that Britain is an island!
June 2021
Have you ever wondered how economists know what happened in economies centuries ago? Long before standardized national accounting, consistent record-keeping, or even the concept of GDP, how do we trace the economic development of nations back to medieval times?
As it turns out, we're economic detectives piecing together fascinating historical puzzles! I recently had the opportunity to work as a research assistant compiling historical economic data sources, and I'd like to share some of the surprising ways researchers reconstruct economic history.