This paper examines the impact of 'ideological' preconceptions on Hong Kong policy-making both during and after the colonial era. An abiding commitment to laisser faire reflected demographic anxieties that were not dispelled by sustained, high-speed economic growth. Economic pessimism was...

To provide a normative foundation for transfers between different societies, one needs information on the “per capita welfare” in different societies, having different population sizes and environmental characteristics. This paper reviews various methods for doing such comparisons. The main...