Culture and Prosperity: The Truth About Markets

June 1, 2004
John Kay | London School of Economics

Why does one economy succeed and another fail? Can one nation’s secret to success be exported to another? What causes markets to fuel prosperity in one country, and wreak disaster in another?

Does America provide an economic model for the world, based on assertive materialism and market fundamentalism? Kay argues that this is not only not a universal prescription, but a false analysis of the US economy’s own success. Markets work because, and only because, they are embedded in social, political and cultural institutions.

Questions to ask:

Why productivity is twenty times higher in Sweden than in India. And why productivity is higher in France than in America despite far longer vacations and far shorter work days. Why unrestrained greed and opportunism leads to poor countries, not rich ones.
Why higher productivity doesn’t necessarily lead to higher living standards.
Why American consumption is 40% higher than the next highest country.
Why the industrial revolution happened in Britain, but not in China.
And why capitalism works wonderfully in America but not yet in Russia.

Speaker Details

John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists and a columnist for the Financial Times. His interests focus on the relationships between economics and business.John Kay began his academic career at age 21 when he was elected a fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, a position which he still holds. As research director and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, he established it as one of Britain’s leading think tanks. Since then he has been a professor at the London Business School, and the University of Oxford and is currently a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He was the first director of Oxford University’s Said Business School.In 1986 Kay founded London Economics, a consulting business, of which he was executive chairman until 1996. During this period, it grew into Britain’s largest independent economics consultancy with a turnover of £10m, and offices in Boston, London, and Melbourne. He has been a director of Halifax plc and has been a director at several investment companies. He is the first (and still the only) professor of management to receive the academic distinction of Fellowship of the British Academy. In 1999 he resigned his position at Oxford and sold his interest in London Economics.A frequent writer, lecturer and broadcaster, Kay is also the author of several books including Why Firms Succeed and a collection of his writings, The Business of Economics. He commutes between London, Oxfordshire and France.