Rights and States: A Political Economy Perspective.

Manchot Lecture 2015: Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics (MIT), Author of the book "Why Nations Fail", lectured at the University of Bonn (Germany).
With generous support by the Jürgen Manchot Foundation.
The Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE) organizes annual Manchot Lectures, Acemoglu was this year's guest speaker. Professor Acemoglu is one of the top ten most cited economists in the world and also known to the general public as author of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail.
Team: Christian Abels & Daniel Schriek
© Universität Bonn / uni-bonn.tv

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Why is the "per capita" income in parts of the world so different. I suggest the reason is the extent to which societies are dominated by rentier interests. The concentrated control over land and natural resources means that the majority of people are forced to labor at subsistence wages, competing for the work that is available with one another.
The same dynamic exists in the wealthier societies but with checks on monopoly privilege under laws and policies that support some level of social democracy. Thus, the situation in the United States has been accelerating in favor of rentier interests since the late 1970s.