skip to content
Close Window

Please sign in to WorldCat 

Don't have an account? You can easily create a free account.

Cancel Forgot your password?
The size of nations
ClosePreview this item

The size of nations

Author: Alberto Alesina; Enrico Spolaore
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2003.
Edition/Format: Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
"The authors of this timely and provocative book use the tools of economic analysis to examine the formation and change of political borders. They argue that while these issues have always been at the core of historical analysis, international economists have tended to regard the size of a country as "exogenous," or no more subject to explanation than the location of a mountain range or the course of a river. Alesina  Read more...
Rating:

 

 

Find a copy in the library

Retrieving... Finding libraries that hold this item...

Details

Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Alberto Alesina; Enrico Spolaore
ISBN: 0262012049 9780262012041
OCLC Number: 52134605
Description: x, 261 p. ; 24 cm.
Contents: Overlapping jurisdictions and the state -- Voting on borders -- Transfers -- Leviathans and the size of nations -- Openness, economic integration, and the size of nations -- Conflict and the size of nations -- War, peace, and the size of nations -- Federalism and decentralization -- Size and economic performance -- The size of nations : a historical overview -- The European Union.
Responsibility: Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore.

Abstract:

"The authors of this timely and provocative book use the tools of economic analysis to examine the formation and change of political borders. They argue that while these issues have always been at the core of historical analysis, international economists have tended to regard the size of a country as "exogenous," or no more subject to explanation than the location of a mountain range or the course of a river. Alesina and Spolaore consider a country's borders to be subject to the same analysis as any other manmade institution. In The Size of Nations they argue that the optimal size of a country is determined by a cost-benefit trade-off between the benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. In a large country, per capita costs may be low, but the heterogeneous preferences of a large population make it hard to deliver services and formulate policy. Smaller countries may find it easier to respond to citizen preferences in a democratic way."--BOOK JACKET.

Reviews


Tags

Be the first.
Confirm this request

You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway.