In this essay, we survey the use of knowledge in economics and argue that knowledge should be treated one way rather than another. In other words, we see our purpose as both positive and normative. First, we want to show how some economists have treated knowledge in their analytical depictions...

In the private sector, the profit and loss mechanism signals firms the need to adjust their production and costs quickly to changes in demand and revenue. In contrast, in the public sector, no such tool is available to adjust spending to changing conditions. Instead policy makers have incentives...

With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the field of comparative political economy has undergone major revision. Socialism is no longer considered the viable alternative to capitalism it once was. We now recognize that the choice is between alternative institutional arrangements of...

This policy paper is part of a discussion series on subject of growth and economic performance at the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development in 2004. It provides a brief view of growth and social change taken from the perspective of market process theory in order to establish the following...

Disasters radically change people's lives and an area's economic environment. Some people lose their sources of income while simultaneously facing huge expenditures to make their homes habitable again. Others lose parts of their customer bases as people decide to leave the disaster-stricken...

The last fifty years of development aid have not been rewarded with success. Part of the reason for this failure has been the focus on macro approaches and policies, which did not emphasize the local institutional context faced by economic agents.In the last decade, the notion of institutions...

International efforts to alleviate poverty in the poorest of nations are increasingly turning to microfinance for solutions. The United Nations's recent declaration that 2005 is the International Year of Micro Credit means that there will be more pressure than ever on development agencies to...