 | Rethinking Institutional Analysis: Interviews with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom 
October 12, 2009
Research Papers/Studies
Paul Dragos Aligica |
| On November 7th, 2003, the Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Orders, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the Institute for Humane Studies honored Vincent and Elinor Ostrom with a Lifetime Achievement Award for their pioneering contributions to the field of political economy through their work on institutional reform, common pool resources, self-governance, and a variety of other topics. In honor of this award, Paul Dragos Aligica interviewed the scholars on their work in institutional analysis.
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 | Silicon Somewhere: A Critique of Cluster Policy
December 31, 2008
Books
Frederic Sautet, Gert-Jan Hospers, Pierre Desrochers |
| The fundamental idea of this paper is that government is not and cannot be the source of successful clustering. While clustering is valuable to the economy, governments do not have access to the knowledge that would enable them to promote the successful development of clusters. We view this epistemic problem bureaucrats face as insurmountable; if anything, it puts a clear limit on the capacity of government to create clusters.
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 | Diversity and the Case Against Specialized Clusters
September 15, 2008
Books
Frederic Sautet, Gert-Jan Hospers, Pierre Desrochers |
| Building on insights that have long been known to regional development specialists and on more recent ones, this essay reexamines the case against regional specialization by pointing out that it is more likely to result in economic downturns, to prevent the spontaneous creation of inter-industry linkages, and to hamper the creation of innovative ideas through the combination of existing know-how and artifacts than a more diversified economic base.
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 | Entrepreneurship, Institutions, and Economic Growth
September 8, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet |
| This paper provides a brief view of growth and social change taken from the perspective of the entrepreneurial process and Austrian economics.
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| Entrepreneurial Policy: The Case of Regional Specialization Vs. Spontaneous Industrial Diversity
August 29, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet, Pierre Desrochers |
| Regional economic development policy is recognized as a key tool governments use to foster economic prosperity. Whether specialization (or diversity) of economic activities should be a regional development policy goal is often debated. This paper addresses this question in a local-diversity context, by reviewing traditional arguments in its favor, supplemented with evidence for more entrepreneurial concepts like industrial symbiosis and Jacobs externalities.
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| The Next Silicon Valley? On the Relationship Between Geographical Clustering and Public Policy
August 29, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet, Gert-Jan Hospers, Pierre Desrochers |
| This paper critically assesses the relationship between geographical clustering and public policy. With the help of a range of theoretical insights and case study examples we show that cluster policy in fact is a risky\ venture, especially when it is tried to copy the success of regional ‘best practices’.
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| The Challenge of Business Self-Regulation: Revisiting the Foundations
June 1, 2008
Journal Articles
Paul Dragos Aligica |
| Regulation without external enforcement has always been a focal point for explorations into the relationship between morality and economic behavior. Are self-regulatory arrangements viable? Are they stable? What are the factors and conditions that determine their stability and viability? Using these questions as a vehicle, the article explores the functional anatomy of self-regulation.
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 | Planting Seeds of Hope
January 11, 2008
Mercatus On Policy
Daniel Sacks, Karol Boudreaux |
| Despite tremendous worldwide economic progress over the past 50 years, hunger and food insecurity remain the daily reality for people around the world. In Africa alone, millions struggle against the ravages of hunger. However, one innovation, the Combi-Pack is showing great potential to reduce hunger and poverty among smallholder farmers in South Africa.
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| The Micromagic of Microcredit
January 8, 2008
Journal Articles
Karol Boudreaux, Tyler Cowen |
| Can microcredit achieve the massive changes its proponents claim? Is it the solution to poverty in the developing world, or something more modest- a way to empower the poor, particularly poor women, with some control over their lives and their assets?
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| Entrepreneurship and Education: The Missing Link in International Development Theory and Practice
December 6, 2007
Journal Articles
Bogdan Florian, Paul Dragos Aligica |
| Education and entrepreneurship are commonly considered major factors of economic development. If that is the case, one would expect that the international development organisations give a special attention to initiatives promoting education on entrepreneurship (teaching entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and ideas) and entrepreneurship in education (promoting the entrepreneurial initiative in providing, maintaining and developing education services). The study finds that these organisations' agenda has not started yet to incorporate the basic insights regarding the link between the two factors and concludes that this situation creates opportunities for a rich analytical and policy agenda in the area of education and entrepreneurship. |
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