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...

L'articolo esamina gli effetti redistributivi della dinamica dei prezzi e le conseguenze espansive/recessive che questa può avere sulla congiuntura. Si richiama l'attenzione sul ruolo del contesto istituzionale (concorrenza e regolamentazione) e sui costi di aggiustamento che ne seguono. Si...

This article discusses whether altruism justifies ad-hoc legislation with reference to three different contexts. One is defined by the libertarian notion of liberty, a second framework corresponds to the egalitarian vision, and a third one originates from social-contract theory. It is shown that...

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...

We use a simple model to analyze the funding stage of new firms and characterize the directional causality between the ir capital structure and the length of prior working experience that entrepreneurs possess. In this light, we test a set of predictions by considering a sample of firms founded...

The public choice-school has explained why policy- making is generally disappointing and frequently against the very interest of the public at large. The economics profession has put forward two kinds of allegedly free-market remedies. On the one hand, the mainstream view underscores the need...

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...

The paper emphasises two flaws in mainstream economics: the failure to understand human behaviour and the belittling of transaction costs. By stressing the role of knowledge, institutions and path dependence, new institutional economics has provided a powerful answer to these shortcomings....

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...

This article tries to reassess the meaning of transition. After a critical review of the traditional approach, it is argued that meaningful transition requires emphasis on the change of the institutional path-dependent process. In this light, the issue of transition may also apply to the West....