Paul Seabright, The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life. Second Edition, Princeton University Press, 2010. Read More →
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The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid
The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid. Bertin Martens, Uwe Mummert, Peter Murrell, Paul Seabright, Elinor Ostrom, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
This book analyzes the institutions–incentives and constraints–that guide the behavior of persons involved in the implementation of aid programs. While traditional performance studies tend to focus almost exclusively on policies and institutions in recipient countries, the authors look at incentives in the entire chain of organizations involved in the delivery of foreign aid, from donor governments and agencies to consultants, experts and other intermediaries. They examine incentives inside donor agencies, the interaction of subcontractors with recipient organizations, incentives inside recipient country institutions, and biases in aid performance monitoring systems.
The Vanishing Rouble
Paul Seabright, The Vanishing Rouble: Barter Networks and Non-Monetary Transactions in Post-Soviet Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. Edited by Paul Seabright.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the transition process in the former Soviet Union has been the extent to which the economy has effectively become demonetized in recent years. At the time of Russia’s financial crisis of 1998 it was estimated that up to 70% of industrial output was being exchanged for barter. This book provides an accessible and authoritative analysis of barter in the former Soviet Union, addressing such questions as: What has brought about this demonetization and why have we not seen the same phenomenon on a widespread scale in central and eastern Europe? Does the nature of demonetization cast light on what underpins monetary transactions in industrial societies? What are the consequences for output and growth? Should the state intervene and how? Does the network character of many non-monetary transactions have implications for the role and value of social networks in complex modern societies?
Contributors: Paul Seabright, Jayasri Dutta, Canice Prendergast, Lars Stole, Caroline Humphrey, Alena Ledeneva, Simon Commander, Christian Mummsen, Sergei Guriev, Barry W. Ickes, Simon Clarke, Dalia Marin, Daniel Kaufmann, Bogdan Gorochowskij, Wendy Carlin, Steven Fries, Mark Schaffer, David G. Anderson, Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov
Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe
John Fingleton, Eleanor Fox, Damien Neven and Paul Seabright, Competition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe, Center for Economic Policy Research, London, 1996.
This book examines the implementation of competition policy during the 1990s in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics. It looks at the economic predicament of countries in transition, considering how far this has required the state to actively police the competitive process. It assesses the extent to which initial economic and political conditions have constrained the involvement of the state in such activity. It then analyzes the statutes of the countries and the structure of the institutions established to implement competition policy. A comprehensive discussion of the case law and the experience of policy in practice is used to suggest lessons for the task of competition policy, both in these countries and in others undergoing the transition from central planning. This book will be valuable not just for those interested in competition policy but for all students of the political economy of transition.