Click on any phrase to play the video at that point.Close The
global economic financial crisis has reignited public interest
in something that's actually one of the oldest questions in
economics, dating back to at least before Adam Smith. And that
is, why is it that countries with seemingly similar economies
and institutions can display radically different savings
behavior? Now, many brilliant economists have spent their entire
lives working on this question, and as a field we've made a
tremendous amount of headway and we understand a lot about this.
What I'm here to talk with you about today is an intriguing new
hypothesis and some surprisingly powerful new findings that I've
been working on about the link between the structure of the
language you speak and how you find yourself with the propensity
to save. Let me tell you a little bit about savings rates, a
little bit about language, and then I'll draw that connection.
Let's start by thinking about the member countries of the OECD,
or the Organization of Ec