Tweet [1]
In the most recent [2] podcast at EconTalk [3], Bruce Bueno De Mesquita and I talk about what makes dictators and democratically elected leaders tick. According to Bruce’s worldview, every leader, no matter what the system, tries to stay in office and prosper. The relentless application of this simple idea turns out to have very interesting implications for foreign aid, the relief of poverty around the world and about a thousand other things. Bruce has a big brain with a lot of interesting things to say. It’s a very long podcast (about an hour and a half) and it opens with a fairly intense discussion of the theories in Bruce’s book [4]. From there he talks about a wide range of applications.
The next podcast at EconTalk will be August 28th with Milton Friedman.