Institutions and Collective Choice in Developing Countries

Institutions and Collective Choice in Developing Countries PDF Author: Mwangi S. Kimenyi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429806310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
First published in 1999, this volume is written by seasoned public choice scholars and is intended to make a significant contribution to the debate on peaceful coexistence and sustainable development in developing countries. The book contains a rich mixture of analytical ideas and views on collective choice and macroeconomic performance in developing countries. This book breaks new ground in that it is the first comprehensive application of the theory of public choice to collective decision making in developing societies. It provides both students of Third World studies and policy makers in developing societies an in-depth analysis for institutions for collective choice. For countries undergoing major reform of their political and economic institutions, public choice theory can provide significant and useful insights, and help these societies design and adopt institutional arrangements that enhance peaceful coexistence of groups, the creation of wealth and sustainable development. Specifically, the book successfully shows that: (1) the application of economic theory to the study of public policy in the developing countries can provide important insights into collective decision-making; (2) the application of public choice theory to the study of developing societies can significantly improve the efficiency of bureaucratic and governmental systems, and consequently, promote economic, political and social development; and (3) public choice can help developing societies design and sustain effective laws and institutions for peaceful coexistence of groups and achieve sustainable development.

Collective Choice and Social Welfare

Collective Choice and Social Welfare PDF Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674919211
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
Originally published in 1970, this classic study has been recognized for its groundbreaking role in integrating economics and ethics, and for its influence in opening up new areas of research in social choice, including aggregative assessment. It has also had a large influence on international organizations, including the United Nations, notably in its work on human development. The book showed that the “impossibility theorems” in social choice theory—led by the pioneering work of Kenneth Arrow—do not negate the possibility of reasoned and democratic social choice. Sen’s ideas about social choice, welfare economics, inequality, poverty, and human rights have continued to evolve since the book’s first appearance. This expanded edition preserves the text of the original while presenting eleven new chapters of fresh arguments and results. “Expanding on the early work of Condorcet, Pareto, Arrow, and others, Sen provides rigorous mathematical argumentation on the merits of voting mechanisms...For those with graduate training, it will serve as a frequently consulted reference and a necessity on one’s book shelf.” —J. F. O’Connell, Choice

Institutions and Collective Choice in Developing Countries

Institutions and Collective Choice in Developing Countries PDF Author: Mwangi S. Kimenyi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138338685
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
First published in 1999, this volume is written by seasoned public choice scholars and is intended to make a significant contribution to the debate on peaceful coexistence and sustainable development in developing countries. The book contains a rich mixture of analytical ideas and views on collective choice and macroeconomic performance in developing countries. This book breaks new ground in that it is the first comprehensive application of the theory of public choice to collective decision making in developing societies. It provides both students of Third World studies and policy makers in developing societies an in-depth analysis for institutions for collective choice. For countries undergoing major reform of their political and economic institutions, public choice theory can provide significant and useful insights, and help these societies design and adopt institutional arrangements that enhance peaceful coexistence of groups, the creation of wealth and sustainable development. Specifically, the book successfully shows that: (1) the application of economic theory to the study of public policy in the developing countries can provide important insights into collective decision-making; (2) the application of public choice theory to the study of developing societies can significantly improve the efficiency of bureaucratic and governmental systems, and consequently, promote economic, political and social development; and (3) public choice can help developing societies design and sustain effective laws and institutions for peaceful coexistence of groups and achieve sustainable development. book successfully shows that: (1) the application of economic theory to the study of public policy in the developing countries can provide important insights into collective decision-making; (2) the application of public choice theory to the study of developing societies can significantly improve the efficiency of bureaucratic and governmental systems, and consequently, promote economic, political and social development; and (3) public choice can help developing societies design and sustain effective laws and institutions for peaceful coexistence of groups and achieve sustainable development.

Governing the Commons

Governing the Commons PDF Author: Elinor Ostrom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107569788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Tackles one of the most enduring and contentious issues of positive political economy: common pool resource management.

Why Nations Fail

Why Nations Fail PDF Author: Daron Acemoglu
Publisher: Currency
ISBN: 0307719227
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

Corruption in Africa

Corruption in Africa PDF Author: John Mukum Mbaku
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739113178
Category : Africa, Sub-Saharan
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Corruption in Africa makes a significant contribution to the study of the impacts and eradication of corruption in African societies. John Mukum Mbaku offers a comprehensive analysis of the causes of public malfeasance in African countries and provides a number of practical and effective policy options for change. This book demonstrates the destructive relationship between corruption and the abrogation of economic freedoms and entrepreneurship, a system that has clearly left Africa as one of the most deprived regions in the world. Utilizing the tools of public choice theory, Mbaku emphasizes the important role that institutions have in corruption control and he recommends reconstructive democratic constitutions as the most effective means of development. Until African states provide their people with institutional arrangements that adequately constrain the state and enhance wealth production, the living standards in the continent will continue to deteriorate. Corruption in Africa is a fascinating and informative text that will appeal to those interested in African studies and developmental policies.

The Arrow Impossibility Theorem

The Arrow Impossibility Theorem PDF Author: Eric Maskin
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231153287
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Kenneth Arrow's pathbreaking Òimpossibility theoremÓ was a watershed in the history of welfare economics, voting theory, and collective choice, demonstrating that there is no voting rule that satisfies the four desirable axioms of decisiveness, consensus, nondictatorship, and independence. In this book, Amartya Sen and Eric Maskin explore the implications of ArrowÕs theorem. Sen considers its ongoing utility, exploring the theoremÕs value and limitations in relation to recent research on social reasoning, while Maskin discusses how to design a voting rule that gets us closer to the idealÑgiven that achieving the ideal is impossible. The volume also contains a contextual introduction by social choice scholar Prasanta K. Pattanaik and commentaries from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth Arrow himself, as well as essays by Sen and Maskin outlining the mathematical proof and framework behind their assertions.

Ethnicity and Governance in the Third World

Ethnicity and Governance in the Third World PDF Author: Pita Ogaba Agbese
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135173606X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This title was first published in 2001. Written by an outstanding international group of researchers focusing on ethnic conflict, this refreshing analysis provides practical and effective policy options for the people of the Third World.

Companion to the Political Economy of Rent Seeking

Companion to the Political Economy of Rent Seeking PDF Author: R. D. Congleton
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1782544941
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
The quest for benefit from existing wealth or by seeking privileged benefit through influence over policy is known as rent seeking. Much rent seeking activity involves government and political decisions and is therefore in the domain of political econo

Business and the State in Developing Countries

Business and the State in Developing Countries PDF Author: Sylvia Maxfield
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501731971
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Much of the debate about development in the past decade pitted proponents of unfettered markets against advocates of developmental states. Yet, in many developing countries what best explains variations in economic performance is not markets or states but rather the character of relations between business and government. The studies in Business and the State in Developing Countries identify a range of close, collaborative relations between bureaucrats and capitalists that enhance elements of economic performance and defy conventional expectations that such relations lead ineluctably to rent-seeking, corruption, and collusion. All based on extensive field research, the essays contrast collaborative and collusive relations in a wide range of developing countries, mostly in Latin America and Asia, and isolate the conditions under which collaboration is most likely to emerge and survive. The contributors highlight the crucial roles played by capable bureaucracies and strong business associations.