This engaging book contains a set of original contributions to the much-debated
issues of long-run economic growth in relation to institutional and social progress.
It explores the mutual relationships between living standards, social habits,
education and health systems, labour market regulation and participatory rules on one
hand, and the growth of the economy on the other. These mutual relationships underpin the
differences between long-run growth rates in different countries, and in their variations
through time. The book also analyses fundamental historical, empirical and theoretical
aspects of the many self-reinforcing mechanisms of growth, such as poverty traps or
industrial take-offs. It offers a lively representation of the reasons why no lasting
economic growth is possible without wider institutional, intellectual and ethical
progress. Uncommitted to a specific overall economic theory, the contributors freely
discuss their understanding of specific aspects of this complex subject.
This stimulating integrated analysis of the main social drivers of economic growth will
strongly appeal both to academic and practising economists, and to postgraduate students
interested in growth theory and social studies.
Edited by Neri Salvadori, Professor of Economics, University of Pisa,
Italy and Arrigo Opocher, Professor of Economics, University of Padua,
Italy
Contents:
Introduction
Arrigo Opocher and Neri Salvadori
1. Does Economic Growth Ultimately Lead to a ‘Noble Life’? A Comparative
Analysis of the Predictions of Mill, Marshall and Keynes
Arrigo Opocher
2. The Debate on Education Financing in the Classical Perspective
Mario Pomini
3. The Role of the Public Sector in the Thought of Hyman Minsky
Giuseppe Mastromatteo
4. Economic Progress and the Standard of Life: Notes on a Dynamic Approach to
Needs and Consumption
Davide Gualerzi
5. The Need for Standards in Students’ Grading
Valentino Dardanoni and Salvatore Modica
6. Education and Endogenous Growth in the Neoclassical Tradition
Mario Pomini
7. Education and Poverty in a Solow Growth Model
Thomas Bassetti
8. Child Mortality Decline, Inequality and Economic Growth
Tamara Fioroni
9. Health Funding, Inequality and Economic Growth
Davide Dottori
10. Education, Change in Consumer Preferences and Growth
Renato Balducci
11. Unemployment in a System of Labour-managed Firms
Bruno Jossa
12. Regulated Wage Economy and Taxation Systems: A Long-run Welfare and Growth
Theoretical Analysis and a Policy Exercise
Luciano Fanti and Luca Gori
13. Sustainable Development and Energy Trends
Simone Borghesi and Alessandro Vercelli
14. Human Needs, Sustainable Development and Public Policy: Learning from K.W.
Kapp (1910–1976)
Tommaso Luzzati
15. Participatory Planning of Economic Development: The Co-evolution of Economic
Theory and Policy
Martina Pignatti Morano
16. Political and Economic Interaction: Income Distribution and Economic Growth
Francesco Purificato
Index
400 pages, Hardcover
