This paper provides a survey of the Great Depression comprising both a narrative account and a detailed review of the empirical evidence, focusing especially on the experience of the United States. We examine the reasons for and flawed resolution of the American banking crisis, as well as the...

Theory and evidence on the effects of public investment on growth and productivity are reviewed. It is concluded that, on average, public capital has positive impacts on output and private investment, partly offset by the effects of the taxation needed to finance it. A possible future shortfall...

The article sets the Asian financial crisis in the context of the developmental state model of Asian development and sees it as, in part, the downside risk of a financial liberalization that was badly handled but nevertheless appropriate as a stimulus to better productivity performance. The East...

Estimates of growth rates of real output per head in various countries are presented and it is concluded that divergence has been more common than catch-up in the twentieth century. Trends in the Human Development Index are reported and these offer a more encouraging picture of the relative...

The paper reviews theory and evidence on the ways in which regulation affects productivity outcomes. In a context of endogenous growth, it is argued that traditional measures of compliance costs miss the potentially most important impacts of regulation on productivity which occur through changes...