Gunnar Myrdal published Asian Drama in 1968, a work which made important analytical contributions to our understanding of development but was deeply pessimistic about Asia's future prospects. Since then, contrary to Myrdal's expectations, Asia's development has been remarkable, although...

EMU is, to a large extent, the result of a process of Franco-German reconciliation and understanding. However, in the postwar period, there were significant differences in ideas and economic policy-making in Germany and France. France was dominated by the "tradition républicaine", giving a...

Neoclassical economists of the current era frequently pay lip service to Adam Smith’s theories to certify the validity of natural-laws-based, laissez-faire policies. However, neoclassical theories are fundamentally disconnected from Adam Smith’s notion of value, his understanding of the...

Warren Nutter's work as director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER's) Soviet growth project is his best-known contribution to economics and public affairs. Many histories of Sovietology note the oddity of Nutter's selection as project director, given his apparent lack of prior...

Modernization theory studies the process of social evolution and the development of societies. There are two levels of analysis in classical modernization theory: the microcosmic evaluations of modernization, which focuses on the componential elements of social modernization; and the macrocosmic...

This paper is a revision of the 2011 Presidential address to the Association for Comparative Economic Studies. It examines the characteristics of comparative economics in the years 1977-1992, using computational tools to conduct intellectual history, by collecting extensive data on the character...

We scrutinise in this paper the systemic consequences of state intervention triggered by external shocks for the dynamics of investment in the transforming Chinese economy. Our analysis focuses on the period before and after the global crisis. We interpret investment dynamics in a comparative...

Between 1991 and 1999, capital flows to 25 transition economies in Europe and the former Soviet Union differed widely in terms of overall levels and the share and composition of private flows. With some exceptions (notably Russia), the main form of private inflows was foreign direct investment....