Theoretischer und empirischer wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt / Theoretical and empirical scientific progress: Eine kritische Analyse des Buches von Alesina und Spolaore: „The Size of Nations“ / A critical assessment of the book „The Size of Nations“ by Alesina and Spolaore

Charles Blankart and Gerrit Koester

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2007, vol. 58, issue 1, 167-180

Abstract: Alesina´s and Spolaore´s „The Size of Nations“ is often seen as an important contribution to recent progress in economic research. But is this assessment really justified? An application of the widely accepted concept of empirical scientific progress to central arguments of the book „The Size of Nations“ reveals substantial weaknesses. The normative assessment of the integration and secession of states by Alesina und Spolaore suffers from an almost complete neglection of the concepts of fiscal federalism and systems competition, while the positive analysis disposes only of weak empirical support and is not convincing in treating free trade as exogenous variable. As a consequence of the general approach Alesina and Spolaore are unable to derive meaningful suggestions for institutional improvements and the goal of empirical scientific progress is largely scarified for pure theoretical progress. This largely reduces the contribution of „The Size of Nations“ to scientific progress in economics.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2007-0115

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