Mainstream policy economics now pays more attention to the delivery of policy outcomes and how incentives and institutional change shape the effectiveness of government. But should these issues be studied against a background of purely self-interested public servants? There is plenty of evidence that many citizens are publicly spirited. Can their motivation be harnessed in the public interest? These lectures review how economic thought on these issues has evolved.

Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Government (The Lindahl Lectures)

Business & Money

Besley, Timothy

Economics

Oxford University Press

What is good government? Why do some governments fail? How do you implement political accountability in practice? What incentives do you need to put in place to ensure that politicians and public servants act in the public interest and not their own? These questions and many more are addressed in Timothy Besley's intriguing Lindahl lectures. Economic analyses of government usually divide into two broad camps. One which emphasizes government as a force for public good that can regulate markets, distribute resources and generally work towards improving the lives of its citizens. The other sees government as driven by private interests, susceptible to those with the power to influence its decisions and failing to incentivize its officials to act for the greater public good. This book adopts a middle way between the two extremes, the Publius approach, which recognizes the potential for government to act for the public good but also accepts the fact that things often go wrong. It shares the view that there are certain institutional preconditions for effective government but then proceed to examine exactly what those preconditions are. Timothy Besley emphasises that it is not just about designing an appropriate institutional framework but also about understanding the way incentives work and the process by which the political class is selected.

"Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things." So wrote Adam Smith a quarter of a millennium ago. Using the tools of modern political economics and combining economic theory with a bird's-eye view of the data, this book reinterprets Smith's pillars of prosperity to explain the existence of development clusters--places that tend to combine effective state institutions, the absence of political violence, and high per-capita incomes.
 To achieve peace, the authors stress the avoidance of repressive government and civil conflict. Easy taxes, they argue, refers not to low taxes, but a tax system with widespread compliance that collects taxes at a reasonable cost from a broad base, like income. And a tolerable administration of justice is about legal infrastructure that can support the enforcement of contracts and property rights in line with the rule of law. The authors show that countries tend to enjoy all three pillars of prosperity when they have evolved cohesive political institutions that promote common interests, guaranteeing the provision of public goods. In line with much historical research, international conflict has also been an important force behind effective states by fostering common interests. The absence of common interests and/or cohesive political institutions can explain the existence of very different development clusters in fragile states that are plagued by poverty, violence, and weak state capacity.

Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters (The Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures)

Persson, Torsten

Princeton University Press

Contemporary Issues in Development Economics (International Economic Association Series)

This IEA volume brings together a set of essays written by leading authors on themes relevant to the study of economic development. The book covers a range of topics many of which are relevant to policy issues. The contributors bring new insights from empirical research in a range of economies with chapters including discussions of the UN development agenda, fiscal policy in Latin America, poverty data in Africa and Jordan, and monetary policy in South Africa. Contemporary Issues in Development Economics is an essential read for researchers, scholars and policymakers interested in economic development in low- and middle-income countries.

Science & Math

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Besley, Timothy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Besley, Timothy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Besley, Timothy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Government (The Lindahl Lectures)

Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Government (The Lindahl Lectures)

Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters (The Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures)

Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters (The Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures)

Contemporary Issues in Development Economics (International Economic Association Series)

Contemporary Issues in Development Economics (International Economic Association Series)