Institutional and Social Dynamics of Growth and Distribution presents a
set of original contributions to the much-debated issues of long-run economic growth in
relation to institutional and social progress.
The main focus of investigation of this engaging book is the mutual relationship
between social, political, and economic institutions on one hand, and the growth of the
economy on the other. These mutual relations are at the crux of differences in long-run
growth rates across countries, and in their variations through time. The contributors
analyse historical, empirical and theoretical aspects of the many self-reinforcing
mechanisms of growth, the role of political institutions, and demographic factors.
Offering a lively representation of the reasons why no lasting economic growth is possible
without broader institutional progress, this book will prove a fascinating read for
students, academics, and researchers focusing on economics, sociology, demography, and
growth theory.
Edited by Neri Salvadori, Professor of Economics, University of Pisa,
Italy
Contents:
Introduction
Neri Salvadori
1. Institutions and the Beginnings of Economic Growth in Eighteenth-Century
Britain
Joel Mokyr
2. The Coevolution of Institutions and Preferences: History and Theory
Samuel Bowles
3. Politics and Income Distribution
Martin Baur
4. Income Distribution and the Interaction between Cycles and Growth
Piero Ferri and Anna Maria Variato
5. Market Failures within Poor Institutions: The Effects of Bureaucrats’
Rent-seeking Activity
Davide Infante and Janna Smirnova
6. Government Spending, Effective Demand, Distribution and Growth: A Dynamic
Analysis
Pasquale Commendatore, Carlo Panico and Antonio Pinto
7. The Role of Human Capital in Economic Growth: Evidence from Greek Regions
Nikos Benos and Stelios Karagiannis
8. Adult Longevity and Economic Take-off from Malthus to Ben-Porath
David de la Croix
9. Endogenous Age Structure in Descriptive Macroeconomic Growth Models: A General
Framework and Some Steady State Analysis
Luciano Fanti, Mimmo Iannelli and Piero Manfredi
10. Bright and Wealthy: Exploring Assortative Mating
Valerio Filoso
11. Information Networks and Knowledge Spillovers: Simulations in an Agent-based
Model Framework
Christian Henning and Volker Saggau
12. Interaction between Economic and Social Variables: The Transformational Growth
Matrix
Edward Nell
13. Financial Fragility, Mean-field Interaction and Macroeconomic Dynamics: A
Stochastic Model
Corrado Di Guilmi, Mauro Gallegati and Simone Landini
Index
384 pages, Hardcover
