This paper examines the contrast between Hong Kong’s reputation for laisser faire and its record of extensive state intervention in financial markets. It traces the long process of abandoning the concepts of virtuous markets and moral hazard and the introduction of increasingly comprehensive...

An Anglo-American regulatory ‘culture’ became associated with 30 years of worldwide economic reforms, global growth and monetary stability. American and British officials identified major sources of instability in their own financial markets before 2007 but remained non-interventionist,...

An Anglo-American regulatory ‘culture' became associated with 30 years of worldwide economic reforms, global growth and monetary stability. American and British officials identified major sources of instability in their own financial markets before 2007 but remained non-interventionist,...

This paper explains why, despite the anti-Keynesian convictions of officials and academics, Hong Kong abandoned its initial commitment to the concepts of virtuous markets and moral hazard and resisted importing the prevailing Anglo-American regulatory ‘culture'. It reviews foreign attacks on...

The literature on mergers between private hospitals suggests that such mergers often produce little benefit. Despite this, the UK government has pursued an active policy of hospital merger. These mergers are initiated by a regulator, acting on behalf of the public, and justified on the grounds...

The distribution of wealth is widening in many countries and with it the importance of inherited wealth. In 1974 a Labour Government came to power in the United Kingdom committed to introducing an annual wealth tax. It left office without doing so. Using the official archives of the time and...

During Britain's industrialization, Parliament operated a forum where rights to land and resources could be reorganized. This venue enabled landholders and communities to exploit economic opportunities that could not be accommodated by the inflexible rights regime inherited from the past. In...