Long-run Growth, Social Institutions and Living Standards

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 practicing economists, and to postgraduate students interested in growth theory and social studies.