"Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things." So wrote Adam Smith a quarter of a millennium ago. Using the tools of modern political economics and combining economic theory with a bird's-eye view of the data, this book reinterprets Smith's pillars of prosperity to explain the existence of development clusters--places that tend to combine effective state institutions, the absence of political violence,...

Timothy Besley brings together a set of essays on themes relevant to the study of economic development written by leading authors. It covers a range of topics many of which are relevant to policy issues. In many cases, the authors bring new insights from empirical research in a range of economies.