Bill Nordhaus died. People remember him for his climate change work. I remember him for these two papers
The first show | Hanami
Bill Nordhaus died. People remember him for his climate change work. I remember him for these two papers
The first shows that innovators capture only a tiny share of the fruits of their innovations. I often tell people that shows something about property rights. If only 4% of gains went to innovators and we got so much innovation, what if property rights were tightened? What if they could appropriate 5% instead? How much more innovation would we get ?
The second is that living standards are not well represented by counting military spending (among many other things). After all, tanks and aircraft carriers are not consumer goods. Their value is not the cost-value (which is how government output is calculated) but rather the option value and the flow of deterrence. I expanded on Nordhaus (and others) in this piece (Geloso, V., & Reilly, C. S. (2026). A Defense-Adjusted National Accounting of the US Economy and Its Implications, 1791-2023. The Review of Austrian Economics, 39(1), 19-50). And thus I owe a debt to Nordhaus.
Both are underappreciated great works
Retweeted by @patrickc from @VincentGeloso