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Using Video Clips To Teach Creative Destruction, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.

Economics Faculty Publications

Stories are memorable and convincing. One way to efficiently tell stories is through movie and video clips. I summarize several video clips that may be useful in teaching aspects of Schumpeter’s important theory of creative destruction. Among the clips discussed are: Hugh Laurie’s Protest Song, electric light segment from a documentary on the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition, eBay Toy Boat Ad, Miss Princess Fun Brick Ad, Moscow toilet paper queue scene, the New York coffee aisle scene from Moscow on the Hudson, and Peck and DeVito’s speeches from Other People’s Money.

JEL Codes: A2, O31, O43

Schumpeter's Creative Destruction: A Review Of The Evidence, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.

Economics Faculty Publications

Thoughtful scholars from Adam Smith to Jared Diamond, have asked the same life-and-death question: why do some societies succeed, and others fail, in producing the goods that make life long, healthy and prosperous? Smith's answer was basically that when societies adopt the rules of market capitalism, their economies grow,:and when they do not adopt the rules of market capitalism, their economies do not. Since Smith, other economists have developed more formal models of economic growth. The classic "Solow growth model" emphasized the investment of capital. Romer's "New Growth Theory," includes knowledge as a variable. What is mainly missing from both …