Melissa Dell

Economist and professor at Harvard, winner of the John Bates Clark Medal. Has researched and written about the significance of persistence in predicting economic outcomes and the interaction of government and economic development.

See also:

• An episode on Tyler Cowen’s podcast with that discusses her work

Links to this note

• The Significance of Persistence in Predicting Economic Outcomes

  Melissa Dell’s research on the significance of persistence in predicting economic outcomes looked at Vietnam pre-colonization (by France) and after the Vietnam war. Histories of a strong state and centralized government ended up being a good predictor of success.