Awards
- Commended for Association of American Publishers Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Cosmology & Astronomy 2011 (United States)
- Commended for PROSE Awards: Economics 2011
- Commended for PROSE Awards: Economics 2011.
Overview
""Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things."" So wrote Adam Smith a quarter of a millennium ago. Using the tools of modern political economics and combining economic theory with a bird's-eye view of the data, this book reinterprets Smith's pillars of prosperity to explain the existence of development clusters - places that tend to combine effective state institutions, the absence of political violence, and high per-capita incomes. To achieve peace, the authors stress the avoidance of repressive government and civil conflict. Easy taxes, they argue, refers not to low taxes, but a tax system with widespread compliance that collects taxes at a reasonable cost from a broad base, like income. And a tolerable administration of justice is about legal infrastructure that can support the enforcement of contracts and property rights in line with the rule of law.The authors show that countries tend to enjoy all three pillars of prosperity when they have evolved cohesive political institutions that promote common interests, guaranteeing the provision of public goods. In line with much historical research, international conflict has also been an important force behind effective states by fostering common interests. The absence of common interests and/or cohesive political institutions can explain the existence of very different development clusters in fragile states that are plagued by poverty, violence, and weak state capacity.
Full Product Details
Author: Timothy Besley ,
Torsten Persson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 3.30cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.680kg
ISBN: 9780691152684
ISBN 10: 0691152683
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 28 August 2011
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.
Language: English
Reviews
This is a fascinating set of questions, and Pillars of Prosperity will be essential reading for other researchers in this area. -- Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist
This is a fascinating set of questions, and Pillars of Prosperity will be essential reading for other researchers in this area. -- Diane Coyle Enlightened Economist
Author Information
Timothy Besley is the School Professor of Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Torsten Persson is the Torsten and Ragnar Sderberg Chair in Economic Sciences and professor of economics at the Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University.
