Culture not incentives creates successful economies
Almost by way of an answer to Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday, which wondered why Portuguese immigrants to the UK were less successful in getting jobs and staying off benefit than other immigrant groups, this article by Gregory Clark, of the University of California concludes that it is the people, not the incentives or institutions, which make a successful economy. He proposes further encouragement for schemes which enable people from less successful economies to move temporarily to more successful economies and then bring their new "cultural" attitudes to wealth creation back with them on their return.
He doesn't mention it, but I think this phenomenon may explain Ireland's recent economic growth, stimulated by Irish returning from the US. It was noticeable that the Portuguese immigrants in the UK who were interviewed for the Dispatches programme had no intention to move back to Portugal, didn't want to do the kind of low paid jobs that Polish immigrants were happy to take on, and had perhaps imbibed the slacker/sponger aspects of British culture rather than our Protestant work ethic. Mind you, judging by this slightly Pollyfilla-ish article by Sarah Sands in the Financial Times, it may only be a question of time before the legendary Polish builders start slacking off too.
It is similar to the kind of recommendations made by Philippe Legrain for temporary immigration schemes.
