What a Performance Stimulant Means for Economic Growth

T.to award Late last year, the United States began to run out of drugs used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd), such as Adderall (an amphetamine) and Ritalin (a central nervous system stimulant). Nine out of 10 pharmacies reported shortages of the drug, which tens of millions of Americans use to improve focus and concentration. Around the same time, something interesting happened. American productivity, a measure of work efficiency, has fallen. In the first quarter of 2023, his hourly output is down 3%.

match? probably. There are many other things that could explain the decline in productivity. But similarly, many of America’s most productive people rely on Adderall to get their jobs done. It often seems like half of the most innovative place on earth, Silicon Valley, is under development.And amazing things can cause GDP Rise and fall, including holidays, strikes and weather. Moreover, it is clear if we look at the history of the economy. Without something to keep people going, the world would still be in an economic dark age.

Of course, not all drug use helps people work better. Don Draper in “Mad Men” tv set In a series about an advertising executive in the 1960s, we were able to meet many of his best ideas at three depths of Scotch. Contrary to popular belief, however, Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s greatest writers, never advised “writing drunk and editing sober,” but rather writing sober. I liked David Ogilvy, perhaps the most famous real-life maniac, warned of the dangers of drunkenness in the office in a book published in 1983. Common on Wall Street and Hollywood, cocaine use can give people a short-term boost. It also causes serious long-term problems.

In fact, economists usually think of mood-altering substances as thwarting prosperity. One estimate in 2007 estimated the cost of drug abuse in the United States at $193 billion, or about 1.3% of drug abuse. GDP. More recently, economists have focused on “death of despair,” many of whom have linked it to opioid abuse. More than 80,000 Americans will die from opioid overdoses in 2021.

However, stimulants can also play a positive role. Consider two of them: sugar and coffee. The former allowed people to work harder. The second method allows us to work smarter.

Until the early 18th century, calories were a major constraint on economic growth in the West. In 1700, her total food supply per person in Britain equaled about 2,000 calories per day, enough to keep the average human alive, but much more. You can not. Workers were therefore inefficient. Many of the poor survived on even poorer food and had little energy to move, let alone do anything useful.

Things changed when sugar imports from the British colonies increased. Per capita annual sugar consumption was about 5 pounds per year in 1700, but by 1800 he had increased to 20 pounds. This is several times the size of continental Europe. From 1800 onwards, as the British developed a taste for sweet teas and cakes, imports surged. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Vogel says that switching from a high-fiber diet to a high-sugar diet “increases the percentage of energy intake, [could] metabolized. ”

Some observed that a growing proportion of the British were fat. Imports, however, have led to high sugar prices in the UK economy. In late 18th century France, about 10% of the people were unable to work due to malnutrition. In the UK, by contrast, only the bottom 3% were incompetent. England in the 18th century GDP The growth rate was seven times that of France. Mr. Vogel thought it would “add the ultra-poor to the workforce.” [and] “Making more energy available to people in the workforce for work” accounts for about a third of Britain’s economic growth in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Coffee, on the other hand, inspired the middle class to do bigger and better things. Joel Mokil of Northwestern University emphasized the importance of the title of his 2016 book, Culture of Growth, in explaining the industrialization of Europe. During this period, science became less academic and more focused on solving real-world problems. Over time, she became the handmaiden of inventions such as the internal combustion engine, which greatly improved her standard of living. The coffee house, which some called “Penny College” at the time, played an important role.

By the early 18th century, there were 600 coffee shops in central London. Mokil points out that the Marine Coffee House in London was an early location for a series of lectures on mathematics. The London Branch Coffee House was a favorite of the fellows of the Royal Society, the intellectual godfathers of the scientific revolution, and a place where people would gather to discuss how science could be applied. Caffeine lubricated the discussion in a way that the depressant, alcohol, never could. This chemical enhances both selective attention (focusing on relevant stimuli) and sustained attention (maintaining it).

Coffee wasn’t the only thing that boosted growth. Eighteenth-century Europe relied heavily on clocks to coordinate the timing of economic activity, and less on the human body’s natural rhythms that were common in agricultural societies. The factory doesn’t work unless everyone comes together at the same time. But now that people have to wake up at unnatural hours, they need something to cheer them up. “Caffeine has become useful in the controlled times of urban industrial societies,” said Stephen Topic of the University of California, Irvine.

fly high

long-term shortages adhd Drug therapy causes great distress to those who need it. Fortunately, the shortage now seems to be easing. Some pharmacies are finally restocking drugs, and regulators have removed some drugs from official shortage lists. People in Silicon Valley are experimenting with other stimulants, such as nootropics, and there’s no shortage of them. American productivity appears to be on the rise again. match? ■

Read more about the economics column “Free Exchange”:
Robert Lucas was a giant of macroeconomics (May 18th)
New World Order Aims to Prioritize Security and Climate Change (May 11th)
How Japanese policy makers fell into a deep hole (May 4th)

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