Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters

“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…” [Publisher’s Book Webpage]

Authors’ Book website

Reviews / Comments

Book review by Moses K. Kihiko in Progress in Development Studies, 13(2), April 2013.

Book review by Tuuli Ylinen in Journal of International Development, 25(3), April 2013.

Book review by Bentley MacLeod in Journal of Economic Literature, 51(1), March 2013. [Earlier version]

Book Review by Colin Jennings in European Journal of Political Economy, 29, March 2013.

Book Review by Claudia Williamson in Public Choice, 153 (1/2), October 2012.

Book Review by Daniel W. Bromley in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, November 2011.

Talk notes for LSE Book Launch by Robert H. Wade, November 2011.

“Building an effective state” by The Enlightened Economist, October 2011.

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