It is shown that the evolution of modern developed societies results into reduction of the role of centralized governance as well as economic and political competition, whereas the role of collaboration mechanisms is growing. This process is supported by cultural changes: increasing trust,...

Lal Jayawardena, who died in Colombo in April 2004, was an intellectual, a lover of life and a humane and gifted leader. He was a top Sri Lankan civil servant of the post-independence era and an influential policy maker. Lal was educated in Sri Lanka and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he...

This paper provides a critical analysis of the World Bank’s new thinking on industrial policy. After outlining the changing perspectives on industrial policy put forward by the World Bank over the last three decades, we argue that the bank’s economists have taken one step forward (the...

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between information technology and the capital markets. The central analytical and policy question addressed here is what kind of financial system or capital market arrangements are most conducive to fostering information technology and its use...

This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset on legal protection of shareholders over a 36 year period, 1970-2005 for four advanced countries, UK, France, Germany and the US. It examines two aspects of the legal origin hypothesis - whether shareholder protection is higher in the common law...

Summary This paper examines the impact on labour markets in advanced countries (ACs) of the integration of the two giant fast-growing countries, China and India, with the liberalised global economy. The integration is taking place under “current globalisation,” which consists of free trade,...

We develop a dynamic model for analyzing the programs of contractual savings for housing (CSH). We introduce concepts of stability as well as strong and weak stability of trajectories generated by CSH programs, and obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions that guarantee fulfillment of...

The theory of reforms usually assumes that a designer aims to increase public welfare under existing constraints. In practice, however, initiators of reforms quite often proceed from false premises, and pursue political and-or self-interested goals. In this paper, we analyze an example of such...

After a brief recent empirical sketch of Islamic finance, the paper turns to its main theoretical and conceptual purpose. It seeks to relate the concepts of Islamic and conventional finance, and to examine certain important questions which arise from the interaction between these systems. The...

Abstract During the 1980s and 1990s, many developing countries (DCs) have been engaged in far-reaching reforms of their financial systems, liberalising them and making them more market-oriented. This liberalisation, involving inter alia ‘financial de-repression’ has been inspired partly by...