As history, institutions, social and political forces specific to any economy have a profound effect on that economy's dynamics, it is important to understand how these have evolved with the development of capitalism. The classical economists analysed economies with labour surpluses, which kept...

Milton Friedman once argued that profits are the chief purpose of business. Profits do matter, but today we know more about how business contributes to society. Good firms bring innovation to the marketplace, which facilitates their growth. Innovative, growing firms generate economic growth and...

From a broad philosophical framework, this paper addresses the relation between freedom and economic performance. It argues for the thesis that, although a liberal system does not guarantee absolute harmony, is the only "convenient" and morally valid for a modern society. The core of this...

The growth surge produced by East Asian newly industrialised nations since 1970s has been a central theme of research and debate amongst many social scientists and policy makers. From an “institutionalist” perspective, the idea of “development state” was theorised to explain this “East...

Ever since the dire predictions of The Limits to Growth (Meadows & al. 1972) failed to come true on time, it's been all too easy to ridicule environmentally-based arguments against economic growth as pessimistic and "Malthusian." In contrast, this paper accepts, for the sake of argument, the...

In 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States the national annual deficit was projected to rise to more than $357 billion by the end of his first term in office. The total deficit was projected to rise to more than $3 trillion, the highest in United States history. To the...