Rafael’s Commentary

The Role of Firm Mergers in Innovation and Economic Growth

Insights from looking at competition policy from the perspective of dynamic competition

Feb 2 • 

Rafael Guthmann

1

January 2024

When will academics stop claiming that China and Europe "diverged"?

This popular idea is based on a false thesis of ancient convergence.

Jan 17, 2024 • 

Rafael Guthmann

11

3

3

August 2023

The world is multipolar now and this is a good thing

Unipolarity for extended periods means the worst kind of monopoly: institutional monopoly

Aug 30, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

4

1

July 2023

3400 years of macroeconomic performance in one graph

Modern economic growth does not look as impressive as in other such graphs

Jul 19, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

11

4

There is a need for the Malthusian Model?

Perhaps not really.

Jul 17, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

5

3

1

February 2023

The Great Waves in Economic History

In western economic history, living standards appear to have had three "supercycles" of rise and fall of economic activity over the past 4,000 years.

Feb 21, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

10

2

1

Democracy and development

It appears to be the case that the foremost causal factor in social and economy development is democracy

Feb 6, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

6

January 2023

Should intellectual property be enforced?

Should patents exist? It appears that they do, although, granting a monopoly of 20 years to new technologies might be too much.

Jan 18, 2023 • 

Rafael Guthmann

6

3

November 2022

The Democratic Stationary Bandit

The modern welfare state is what happens when you mix Ghenghis-Khan with Classical Athens

Nov 12, 2022 • 

Rafael Guthmann

6

1

Virtual public goods and Musk's purchase of Twitter

Musk's purchase of Twitter suggests that society might need virtual public squares besides private social media sites

Nov 10, 2022 • 

Rafael Guthmann

5

Why do billions speak languages with large Latin heritage while less than 14 million speak languages derived from Ancient Greek?

Answer: historical contingency that Latin's influence could be preserved in Western Europe while most Greek speaking regions of antiquity the local…

Nov 8, 2022 • 

Rafael Guthmann

7

1

September 2022

Ancient scientists and the economic performance of antiquity

Ancient economic history can be summarized by: Fast growth from 800 BC to 300 BC, slow growth from 300 BC to around 1 AD, negative growth from 1 AD to…

Sep 21, 2022 • 

Rafael Guthmann

9

4