The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

This book demonstrates that people's basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behaviour. These changes are roughly predictable: to a large extent, they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernisation theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85 percent of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernisation is a process of human development, in which economic development gives rise to cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely. The authors present a model of social change that predicts how the value systems play a crucial role in the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions - and that modernisation brings coherent cultural changes that are conducive to democratisation.

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Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence

1.. HARD CASES 5. Legal Rights A. Legislation . . . We might therefore do well to consider how a philosophical judge might develop, in appropriate cases, theories of what legislative purpose and legal principles require. We shall find that he would construct these theories in the same manner as a philosophical referee would construct the character of a game. I have invented, for this purpose, a lawyer of superhuman skill, learning, patience and acumen, whom I shall call Hercules. I suppose that Hercules is a judge in some representative American jurisdiction. I assume that he accepts the main uncontroversial constitutive and regulative rules of the law in his jurisdiction. He accepts, that is, that statutes have the general power to create and extinguish legal rights, and that judges have the general duty to follow earlier decisions of their court or higher courts whose rationale, as l

Taking Rights Seriously

Anarchy, state, and utopia

Capitalism and Freedom

In this revised and expanded version of a classic IEA text, first published in 1983, but revised and expanded in 1997, Professor Lal provides a robust critique of the statist model of development which denigrates both trade and open markets. He concludes that the demise of this dogma would be beneficial to the health of both the economics and the economies of developing countries. The history of the last twenty years has demonstrated the force of the Lal critique. The dogma in its old form has gone, as Professor Lal shows in a postscript that brings the original text up to date both in terms of statistics and in terms of the history of ideas. Nevertheless, as he warns, dirigiste tendencies have not disappeared, but are emerging in new guises.

The Poverty of `Development Economics'.

This is a classic IEA text, first Published in 1983, but revised and expanded in 1997. Its critique of that type of 'development economics' highly influential in the early 1980s, which the author branded the 'dirigiste dogma', proved extremely controversial in the first few years of the book's life. Professor Lal concluded that the demise of the dogma would be beneficial to the health of 'both economics and the economies of developing countries'. The history of the last twenty years has demonstrated the force of the Lal critique. The dogma in its old form has gone, as Professor Lal shows in a postscript that brings the original text up to date both in terms of statistics and in terms of the history of ideas. Nevertheless, as he warns, dirigiste tendencies have not disappeared, but are emerging in new guises.

The Poverty of "Development Economics"

This is a summary of the findings of specially commissioned analytical economic histories of 21 developing countries from 1950 to 1985. It represents an interdisciplinary attempt to identify patterns in the interplay of initial conditions, institutions, interests and ideas which can help to explain the different growth and poverty alleviation outcomes in the Third World. The authors establish frameworks for comparative study, and marshall evidence to argue for the continuing relevance of the classical liberal viewpoint on public policies for development.

The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth: A Comparative Study

In this book, based on the 1995 Ohlin Lectures, Deepak Lal provides an accessible, interdisciplinary account of the role of culture in shaping economic performance Topics addressed include a possible future "clash of civilizations," the role of Asian values in the East Asian economic miracle, the cultural versus economic causes of social decay in the West, and whether modernization leads to Westernization Lal makes an important distinction between material and cosmological beliefs, showing how both were initially shaped by factor endowments and how they have evolved in response to changing historical pressures in different civilizationsLal's first major theme is the interaction of factor endowments, culture, and politics in explaining modern intensive growth in the West The other major theme is the role of individualism--an inadvertent legacy of the medieval Catholic Church--in promoting this growth, and the strange metamorphoses this has caused in both the West's cosmological beliefs and the interaction between "the West and the rest" Lal takes account of the relevant literature in history, anthropology, social psychology, evolutionary biology, neurology, and sociology, and the economic history of the regions and cultures that form Eurasia An appendix shows how the stories Lal tells can be described by four formal economic models

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance

This paper surveys empirical studies which seek to demonstrate the limited static gains from a movement towards free trade in Section I. Section II surveys statistical studies which have established the dynamic effects of growth in exports on that of per capita income. Section III summarises the results from a series of comparative studies of developing countries trade regimes undertaken in the 1960s to 1970s, which show fairly conclusively that so-called 'outward-orientation' does in practice seem to be positively associated with better economic performance in terms of growth rates of per capita income. Section IV examines whether the conclusions of these studies were also valid for the more volatile global environment of the 1970s and 1980s while Section V considers various arguments which seek to provide a link between growth performance and trade regimes through the 'dynamic' income effects of the growth in world income and trade. Section VI introduces certain insights of the classical writiers which might explain the stylised facts about the links between trade and growth performance.

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Deepak Lal

Papers

The Poverty of `Development Economics'.

The Poverty of "Development Economics"

The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth: A Comparative Study

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance

Foreign trade regimes and economic growth in developing countries