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Title: The Size of Nations by Alberto Alesina, Enrico Spolaore ISBN: 0-262-01204-9 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)
Rating: 3
Summary: Stimulating, but centrally flawed.
Comment: The book raises two interesting questions and attempts to answer them; What determines the size of nations, and what effect country size has on economic success? The discussions that follow are thought provoking and I recommend the book to anyone that finds the questions fascinating.
The central flaw is one that comes up early and has far too much influence in subsequent chapters. A principle assumption is that public services are localized and that the further the distance from the those services, the less benefit a citizen will derive from them. Distance therefore becomes a key factor in determining the populations loyalty to the center. Providing those services, or compensating for the lack of them, is progressively more expensive the further from the center. This may have once been true in earlier, more centralized times when capital cities were lavished with amenities that other cities lacked. The same argument now would imply one of the following:
1) that people living in Washington DC have far better public utilities than those living in Honolulu and the central government gives substantial tax breaks to those living in Hawaii to compensate.
or 2) Honolulu has public amenities comparable to DC, but that the cost to the center to provide it to Hawaii is prohibitive and far outweighs taxes collected in Hawaii.
This book is far more valuable for raising the right questions than for giving the right answers. If the reader can appreciate that, this book is well worth the read.
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Title: Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy : by Richard A. Posner ISBN: 0674010817 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: 31 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Breaking of Nations : Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century by Robert Cooper ISBN: 0871139138 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: 09 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The New Financial Order : Risk in the 21st Century by Robert J. Shiller ISBN: 0691091722 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 02 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity by Luigi Zingales, Raghuram Rajan ISBN: 0609610708 Publisher: Crown Business Pub. Date: 18 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World by Bruce Schneier ISBN: 0387026207 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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