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 Coyne

Evidence 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

Source

Christopher Coyne on Exporting Democracy after War 04/07/2008EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:29:02 AM

My Notes

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