This paper develops the theory of entangled political economy by outlining a process by which the political-economic order can become increasingly entangled. The theory posits that a Big Player polity organization, a key feature of which is a lack of a hard budget constraint, exports this...

This paper explores the effects of debt erosion on the market process. Debt erosion is the attempt by government to lower the real value of its debt through the creation of unexpected inflation. In addition to the costs recognized by most economists, debt erosion through unexpected inflation can...

I consider whether a rules-based fiat money system can outperform the gold standard in delivering economic stability. I discuss the potential objectives of monetary policy in Section 1 and the means for achieving the objective in Section 2. I turn to questions of political economy in Section 3....

The literature on macroprudential policy suggests managing the systemic risk of the financial system as a whole is the best way to prevent financial crises. Unfortunately, this literature has not considered the problems of information- and incentive-compatibility that are the foundation of sound...

This paper traces the normative side of James Buchanan's individualist-subjectivist-contractarian position. The literature on anarchy and radical self-governance treats Buchanan's position, and social contract theory more generally, as a rival rather than allied branch of analysis. However, I...

A self-enforcing monetary constitution has rules that agents acting within the system will uphold even in the presence of deviations from ideal knowledge and complete benevolence and it thus does not require external enforcement. What would such a constitution look like? Such a constitution, I...

This paper explores the effects of debt erosion on the market process. Debt erosion is the attempt by government to lower the real value of its debt through the creation of unexpected inflation. In addition to the costs recognised by most economists, debt erosion through unexpected inflation can...

The problem of financial stability is political and institutional, rather than narrowly economic. To achieve a more resilient financial system, we need to pay attention to the incentives of actors who have the power to act discretionarily, and to the knowledge limitations of such actors in the...

This paper identifies political property rights and jurisdictional rivalry as the fundamental dimensions to understand comparative economic and political development. After developing a general framework for the study of relative performance in the ‘market for governance', we argue that...