To: Economic Geography
Some members of the list may be interested in our new book, _Institutions,
Social Norms and Economic Development_. I am reproducing the back cover copy
below.
If you would like a paper leaflet drop me your material address.
It is the first volume in our new Studies in Development Economics series.
Best wishes
Gerard
Harwood Academic Publishers
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_________________________
Institutions, Social Norms, and Economic Development
Jean-Philippe Platteau
Jean-Philippe Platteau's Institutions, Social Norms, and Economic
Development is a major step in our progress. It combines the author's sound
knowledge of the necessary economic theory with the essential theory of
other social sciences enriched by his extensive work in the field.
Douglass C. North,
from the Foreword
In order for economic specialization to develop, it is important that
well-defined property rights are established and that suspicion and fear of
fraud do not pervade transactions. Such conditions cannot be created ex
abrupto but must somehow evolve. What needs to develop are not only suitable
practices and rules themselves, but also the public agencies and moral
environment without which generalized trust is difficult to establish. The
cultural endowment of societies as they have developed over their particular
histories is bound to play a major role in this regard, and the matter of
cultural endowment is one of the central themes of this book.
On the other hand, division of labour does not only require well-enforced
property rights and trust in economic dealings. It is also critically
conditioned by the thickness of economic space, itself dependent on
population density. This provides the second major theme of the volume:
market development, including the development of private property rights, is
not possible, or will remain very incomplete, if populations are thinly
spread over large areas of land. The book makes special reference to
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Institutions, Social Norms, and Economic Development is a significant
addition to the literature and will be of wide interest to social scientists
concerned with the economics of development and the relations between
institutions and economic performance.
Jean-Philippe Platteau is Professor of Economics at the University of Namur,
Belgium. His previous work includes (with J.M. Baland) Halting Degradation
of Natural Resources - Is There a Role for Rural Communities? (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1996) and numerous articles in academic journals. His main
interest lies in institutional issues at the border between economics and
other social sciences.
Published August 2000
Hardback. 384 pages
ISBN: 90-5823-058-9
US$60 / GBP41
Studies in Development Economics, volume 1. Ed. Kaushik Basu
ISSN: 1562-3440
harwood academic publishers
A member of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group
http://www.gbhap.com
Gerard Greenway
commissioning editor, social sciences
Harwood Academic
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Tel: +44 (0)118 952 0314 (direct line)
http://www.gbhap.com
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