The structure and regulation of a country’s financialmarkets and institutions are the focus of considerablepolicy attention for a number of economic and politicalreasons. Banks and other financial institutions encourage andcollect the savings that finance a country’s economic growth.By...

This paper examines pre-colonial interaction among polities along the Konkan coast, from Surat to Goa, during the long half-century c.1680-1756. Specifically it uses the dynasty of the Angrias, who were deemed pirates by the European powers but were actually an integral part of the Maratha...

This article, based on two books (Barr and Diamond 2008, forthcoming), sets out a series of principles for pension design rooted in economic theory: pension systems have multiple objectives, analysis should consider the pension system as a whole, analysis should be framed in a second-best...

This Report is about Reforming pensions in China, Chile and elsewhere.

This report is the first policy study of the China Economic Research and AdvisoryProgramme, in which eminent economists from China and abroad have participated. Thereport focuses on the problems faced by China in the reform of its social security system.On the basis of economic principles and...

Die Sicherung der technologischen Leistungsfähigkeit und die Förderung von Innovationsprozes-sen gehören seit langem zum Kernbestand staatlicher Standortpolitiken. Im Bundesbericht For-schung 2000 beispielsweise heißt es dazu: „Die Innovationskraft von Wirtschaft und Wissen-schaft bestimmt...

This paper discusses the contribution made by American social scientists to thestudy of poverty in the past twenty five years. It has three parts. The firstconcentrates on the measurement of poverty and the fact that the US povertyline remained unchanged in that period despite its increasingly...

This paper examines the extent to which the policies towards thewelfare state pursued by the Labour Government in its first fifteenmonths represent a break with those of its Conservativepredecessor and with earlier policies put forward by Labour inopposition. Four key parts of its inheritance...

London is being successfully regenerated at present, yet poverty andsocial exclusion are increasing. The paradox is explained in part by theopenness of the London economy and the lack of basic skills of asubstantial minority of the population. The Government’s policies fortackling social...

All rulers face political competition, both from rivals within their state, andfrom other states to which their subjects may exit. In a simple model, both kinds of competitionare substitutes. Internal competition (democracy) benefits citizens by allowingthem to replace rent-seeking rulers. But...