Economic Gangsters

In my Macroeconomic Theory class this semester, I assigned Fisman and Miguel's book, Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations.  It seems my students really liked the book.  I was less impressed than they were.  I was impressed by the title, though--how can you not like a book that promises to combine economics and gangsters?  Keynes as the Godfather--surely that would be a Hollywood blockbuster, right?

The book is part of the genre of "economic researchers summarize their papers in a book aimed at a popular audience."  This particular book documents that, shockingly enough, some nations are more corrupt than others, and some nations have higher levels of violence than others, and that such corruption and violence plays a big role in keeping poor countries poor.  This, by the way, is the sort of research which is interesting to economists, but about which non-economists all say in unison, "Well, isn't that rather obvious?"  [Whether you said that when reading the book description is a good test of whether you are an economist or a normal person.]  Well, no it isn't obvious, thank you very much--you non-economists just think it is obvious, but without an extensive study of parking violations by diplomats to the UN, we really don't know if corruption is inherent in some country's culture and whether the countries with inherently corrupt cultures are poorer than those those countries with cultures which are less corrupt.  At least we have to assume the non-obviousness of the conclusion in order to justify doing the research, writing a book like this one and then reading it and assigning it to one's students.

So, is the book worth reading?  I don't know--I thought it was worth reading once, but I don't think I would recommend it to others.  However, the students I have talked to about it loved it, so maybe I am wrong to hesitate recommending it.

The parking violation story is the best chapter.  The authors figured out which diplomatic corps had the highest rate of parking violations in New York.  Since diplomats don't have to pay for their parking violations, there is no consequence for breaking the law.  There is no consequence for any diplomats to break the parking laws, but some countries' diplomats violate parking laws much more frequently that others.  The range:  249.4 violations per diplomat over a 5 year period is the worst offender; 0 violations per diplomat over the same 5 year period is the best record.  The worst offenders: Kuwait, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Bulgaria, Mozambique, Albania, Angola, Senegal, Pakistan.  An interesting group, that.

Speaking of corruption and violence, someone called in a bomb threat at Emma and Lily's school today.   So, they had to evacuate the building and they sent everyone home early.  Now, this might have been good news for some kids, but not mine.  You see, the students were not allowed to go back and get their things, so Emma had to leave her car keys inside.  So, she is annoyed.  Lily took the bus home, but today the electrician is at our house today replacing our electrical panel, so we have no electricity, and so being home isn't all that exciting today.  Emma went a friend's house nearby the school ostensibly because that way she has some hope of getting back over to the school to get her keys, but also perhaps because said friend still has electricity.  Clara, meanwhile, gets to spend the whole day in school, but since Clara's school is next door to the high school, I suspect that classroom instruction (or that which everyone pretends to be instruction) was disrupted by all the faux excitement.

In talking with a colleague about the bomb scare, we got to wondering--is it still possible to make an anonymous phone call?  I have no idea.  It is rather hard to find a pay phone these days, and with Caller ID, don't they have a record of every call being made?