The geographical concentration of related manufacturing and service firms is as old as economic development but it has drawn renewed attention in the last two decades in the wake of the spectacular growth of regional economies such as Silicon Valley (South San Francisco Bay), Route 128 (greater...

This policy paper is part of a discussion series on subject of growth and economic performance at the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development in 2004. It provides a brief view of growth and social change taken from the perspective of market process theory in order to establish the following...

The last fifty years of development aid have not been rewarded with success. Part of the reason for this failure has been the focus on macro approaches and policies, which did not emphasize the local institutional context faced by economic agents.In the last decade, the notion of institutions...

Writing over 230 years ago, Adam Smith noted the 'juggling trick' whereby governments hide the extent of their public debt through 'pretend payments.' As the fiscal crises around the world illustrate, this juggling trick has run its course. This paper explores the relevance of Smith’s juggling...

In spite of general reductions in government spending, the prime minister has found room in the government's budget to spend money on a major survey of what makes the British people happy. This will be used, in the prime minister’s own words, to guide government policy towards improvement in...

The author argues that the decay of liberal capitalism is the consequence of social rules that leave unconstrained the unwarranted intrusion of government into our economic affairs and reward leaders who can succeed in this process of power politics