Why Information Grows

What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's antidisciplinarian César Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of info...

What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's antidisciplinarian César Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of information, networks, and complexity. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order

Biography

Cesar Hidalgo leads the Macro Connections group at the MIT Media Lab and is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. Hidalgo is a trained physicist experienced in the study of Complexity in Social and Economic systems, and also, a pioneer in the development of tools to visualize Big Data.