Top all-time · #4942
Andrew Batson
Personal blog · andrewbatson.comeconomicshistory
Andrew Batson writes The Tangled Woof, a personal blog at andrewbatson.com about economics and history. Since 2015, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “Logistics and the Demand for Empire (2019)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Economics blog on China's economic history and development. HN commenters cite its posts on Guangdong's pre-plan market activity, development economics, and the Nobel prizes as background for their own points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Andrew Batson's blog. Musings on China, books, economics, jazz, history, and other stuff of interest.
Most-linked posts?
- Logistics and the Demand for Empire (2019)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-08-25
What Hacker News says?
Guangdong had a pre-existing agglomeration of black-market capitalists because the proximity to Hong Kong made smuggling viable. From https://andrewbatson.com/2020/10/20/the-upcoming-westad-chen... : " One example we use is the No.3 Memory of Lenin Tractor Repair Factory in Zhuhai, which already in 1973 had started repairing tractors outside the plan. It would take tractors that needed to be repaired from other unit…
Comment linking /2020/10/20/the-upcoming-westad-chen-book-on-chinas-long-1970s/
on “ASML says it sold 'absolutely nothing' in Europe in 2026”Submitted What’s behind China’s boom in company formation? as a story · 72 points
HN discussionHere’s an economics article at least: https://hbr.org/1996/07/increasing-returns-and-the-new-world... And here’s a short article about his contribution to that article: https://andrewbatson.com/2016/12/13/cormac-mccarthys-contrib...
Comment linking /2016/12/13/cormac-mccarthys-contribution-to-the-theory-of-increasing-returns/
on “Cormac McCarthy's tips on how to write a science paper (2019) [pdf]”Submitted Misunderstanding Malthus’ mistake as a story · 43 points
HN discussionTaxation in China (at least by law) is quite comparable to Germany's (40+% when you reach ~$144k) but without all the social benefits. Unlike Germany, there are gray areas in the Chinese system where people find ways to pay less tax. But there are also other cost-inducing things than tax. In lights of the evergrande crisis, I'm not sure how efficient China's hugely state-directed investment system is. And much won't…
Comment linking /2021/10/13/mobilization-and-modules-whats-changing-in-china/
on “Monopoly supplier of critical Pentagon semiconductors shuts down its production”Submitted First explorations in Indian classical music as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThough I know the Nobel is focused on theoretical contribution, I found this discussion interesting: https://andrewbatson.com/2019/10/25/who-deserves-the-nobel-f... The editorial Batson is reacting to (by Yao Yang) makes the point that the largest economic development project that lifted the vast majority of people out of poverty over the past 20 years was orchestrated by China, and the RCTs/small scale intervention…
Comment linking /2019/10/25/who-deserves-the-nobel-for-chinas-economic-development/
on “This year’s Nobel prizes prompt soul-searching among economists”Submitted China census reveals the true scale of the Northeast’s decline as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lessons from Douglass North as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Exams Are Everything in China as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Who won the battle of ideas in China? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Music I Heard in 2024 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What you can see from the high speed train to Beijing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Logistics and the Demand for Empire (2019) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Breaking Down China’s Manufacturing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Searching for Xuanzang as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Chinese ruined a perfectly good gender-neutral pronoun as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Logistics and the Demand for Empire as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
