My colleague Alex Field spoke a couple weeks ago at the Legatum Institute in London.  Here’s what they had to say about his work:

His book, A Great Leap Forward, is a re-examination of the history of US economic growth is built around a novel claim, that potential output grew dramatically in the Depression years between 1929 and 1941 and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the Golden Age of 1948 to 1973 that followed.

Alexander J. Field takes a fresh look at growth data and concludes that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government building of the highway network.

Their promo photo was nice too.  But I forced Alex to let me share with you the photo of the dining room where they had the talk.  Eye candy.  Yup, once you give a talk in a room like this, you’re done!