Reconstruction's success depends on culture and informal institutions (human capital) far more than on physical infrastructure or money: like Microsoft, where rebuilding a burned headquarters is trivial because the people and culture remain, Japan and Germany only needed physical rebuilding, whereas building a Microsoft building in Iraq would fail because the human capital and culture that make it work are absent.
causalpending
Speaker
Christopher CoyneEvidence Quote
“focusing on purely monetary resources on humanitarian aid on the number of buildings reconstructed this is wrongheaded because it neglects the underlying factors that allows that infrastructure to be used in an effective manner”
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:29:02 AM
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