商品簡介
The authors of this timely and provocative book use the tools of economic analysis toexamine the formation and change of political borders. They argue that while these issues havealways been at the core of historical analysis, international economists have tended to regard thesize of a country as "exogenous," or no more subject to explanation than the location of a mountainrange or the course of a river. Alesina and Spolaore consider a country's borders to be subject tothe same analysis as any other man-made institution. In The Size of Nations, they argue that theoptimal size of a country is determined by a cost-benefit trade-off between the benefits of size andthe costs of heterogeneity. In a large country, per capita costs may be low, but the heterogeneouspreferences of a large population make it hard to deliver services and formulate policy. Smallercountries may find it easier to respond to citizen preferences in a democratic way.Alesina andSpolaore substantiate their analysis with simple analytical models that show how the patterns ofglobalization, international conflict, and democratization of the last two hundred years can explainpatterns of state formation. Their aim is not only "normative" but also "positive" -- that is, notonly to compute the optimal size of a state in theory but also to explain the phenomenon of countrysize in reality. They argue that the complexity of real world conditions does not preclude asystematic analysis, and that such an analysis, synthesizing economics, political science, andhistory, can help us understand real world events.
作者簡介
Enrico Spolaore is is Professor of Economics at Tufts University.
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