I. FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES IN EUROPE -- Markets and institutions in the rise of London as a financial center in the seventeenth century Larry Neal, Stephen Quinn -- Paris Bourse, 1724-1814: experiments in microstructure Eugene N. White -- No exit: notarial bankruptcies and the evolution of...

Biographical note: KainJohn F.: John F. Kain is Professor of Economics and Professor of City Planning, Harvard University.MeyerJohn R.: John R. Meyer was the James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation Emeritus at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

This collection of twelve essays is based on the premise that a better understanding of the economic development process can be gained by studying the history of those countries that have experienced long-term economic success, in this case the United States during the nineteenth century - that...

The Erie Canal was a mammoth public works project undertaken largely because the scope of the investment was beyond what a private firm could manage during the early 19th century. As with most public works, there were ample opportunities for public officials to realize private gains from the...

Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom argues that the ability to make choices is fundamental to economic development, and that the evaluation of outcomes can provide misleading answers. He uses the example of the high material consumption of US slaves relative to some free whites to illustrate...