The Cookbook Theory of Economics

In: FP, Heft 201

Abstract

Just try looking for foreign cookbooks in any American bookstore: The shelves will be littered with French and Italian fare, East Asian and Indian selections, and a smattering from places south of the equator. The very geography tells a story: Call it the cookbook indicator of economic development. First consider global cuisines like Mexican or Chinese. You can find a handful of good cookbooks pretty much anywhere these days. It's development economics in practice -- a foodie measure of how much these societies have moved toward greater commercialization, large-scale production, and standardization of production processes. Quite simply, it's the recipe for economic progress. Cookbooks can also tell people when they've reached some post-modern stage of economic development: It's when cookbooks cease to be useful at all. Soon it will be possible to cook the dishes of the entire world, but only those, alas, that survive the process of commercialization and standardization. Adapted from the source document.