The recent crisis in public finance that has characterized most Western countries has stoked renewed interest in the possibility of reducing government expenditure by reforming the health-care system. After reviewing the origins of today’s state intervention in this field, the present paper...

We use a simple model to analyze the founding stage of new firms. Our goal is to characterize the directional causality between the expected rewards from entrepreneurship and the length of prior labor market experience that entrepreneurs possess. We test predictions about the timing of the...

We analyze the loans that startup firms obtain from banks by testing our predictions on a set of small, young Italian companies founded during the 1992-2004 period. According to our investigation, the amount of borrowing is determined by (1) the size of the firm, (2), the ability to offer...

The Gregorian revolution introduced the rule of law in the West and created necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for growth to take off. This paper analyzes some of the consequences provoked by the evolution in the notion of the rule of law ?from being based upon God-given natural law to...

We analyze the loans that small, newly established firms obtain from the banks by certain relationships based on a set of small, young Italian companies founded during the 1992–2004 period. According to our investigation, the amount of borrowing is determined primarily by the size of the firm,...

This paper analyzes the role of uncertain costs and liability in the free market context and compares it with Calabresi’s approach. Contrary to the mainstream literature, the free-market view claims that property rights should not be tampered with, that the tort-feasor should always be held...

Institutions matter: they affect individual action, influence cooperation, and are crucial in making the difference between wealth and poverty, growth and stagnation. Yet, the explanatory power of modern institutional theorizing has not been exceedingly satisfactory. In contrast with the...

Institutions matter: they affect individual action, influence cooperation and are crucial in making the difference between wealth and poverty, growth and stagnation. Yet, the explanatory power of modern institutional economics has not been exceedingly satisfactory. This paper criticizes the...

Contrary to the mainstream view, the paper offers a subjectivist approach to growth and an institutional view of development. In particular, the term development regards the prevailing rules of the game and their effects on the key variables for economic activity to take off: property rights and...