The article is good, but the title’s claim is too strong.
Merely knowing that Malawi is a landlocked sub-Saharran African country has huge explanatory power. The question of ‘We don’t know why Malawi is poorer than Rwanda’ seems like a better question (which the article explores).
The pushback against AI led productivity growth also seems comparatively weak. AI is not referenced until the last paragraph, and I don’t think you really engage with what AI makes possible.
This is just annoying because the article is really good, but now I want to argue about the title XD
Malawi is really, really poor—worse than almost all Sub-saharan landlocked countries even those with previous conflicts and worse institutions. I get what you mean that Malawi could be doing twice as well and still be really poor, but despite that I think the title is just fine!
The article is good, but the title’s claim is too strong.
Merely knowing that Malawi is a landlocked sub-Saharran African country has huge explanatory power. The question of ‘We don’t know why Malawi is poorer than Rwanda’ seems like a better question (which the article explores).
The pushback against AI led productivity growth also seems comparatively weak. AI is not referenced until the last paragraph, and I don’t think you really engage with what AI makes possible.
This is just annoying because the article is really good, but now I want to argue about the title XD
Malawi is really, really poor—worse than almost all Sub-saharan landlocked countries even those with previous conflicts and worse institutions. I get what you mean that Malawi could be doing twice as well and still be really poor, but despite that I think the title is just fine!