481. Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than Chi...

A ruthless (and ruthlessly efficient) industry is using digital tools to supercharge one of the world’s oldest behaviors. We look at how the industry works, and ask the scam-fighters what they’re doing about it. SOURCES: Kati Daffan, former assistant director at the Federal Trade ...  Show more

Economists don’t usually talk about “culture.” But Joel Mokyr argues that it’s the engine of innovation — and the Nobel Prize committee agreed. Stephen Dubner sits down for a thousand-year conversation (including advice!) with the new Nobel laureate. SOURCES: Joel Mokyr, economic ...  Show more

It's often said that America is as politically divided as it has ever been. In this week's show we dive into the data from two different groups that study American attitudes. What they discovered challenges some of our assumptions about the current state of US politics, and of ...

How do we make sense of the “durability and gigantic scale” of China’s economic expansion alongside the reports of “rising” and “explosive” corruption? How has China moved from an “impoverished communist regime to a capitalist superpower rivaling the United States” despite a cris ...  Show more

الفساد موجود في العالم كله، لكن تأثيره على البلدان النامية أكبر نسبياً. في هذا البث الصوتي، يشير أحد خبراء الاقتصاد إلى دور النظام السياسي في هذا الصدد، ويقول إن بعض الأنظمة الحكومية أقدر من غيرها على التصدي للفساد. 

Traditional thinking on corruption goes like this: if you put good laws in place and enforce them well, then economic development increases and corruption falls. In reality, we have the equation backwards, says innovation researcher Efosa Ojomo. In this compelling talk, he offers ...  Show more