“I think that the implication of the Austrians make with their research, that this proves that no government is better than government, is fallacious.”

That’s not the point in it’s entirety. Leeson’s paper specifically addresses this.

“Although a properly constrained government may be superior to statelessness, it is not true that any government is superior to no government all. DeLong and Shleifer (1993), for instance, find that
in pre-industrial Europe, countries without unified governments performed better in some ways …”

This seems to be a case of wrong government vs. right government, rather than government vs no government.

Furthermore, I think that the implication of the Austrians make with their research, that this proves that no government is better than government, is fallacious. While I do tend to believe that some government is better than no government, there can be such a line of ineffectiveness and corruption past which no government could be better than the government currently in place. However, like I said, the Somalis are governed right now, albeit not by a central government.

In Ben’s paper, there is Death Rate (per 1000), Infant Mortality (per 1000), Life Expectancy, Child Malnutrition (% of children underweight), Telephone-Main Lines per 1,000 people, Mobile Cellular Phones per 1,000 people, Internet Users Per 1,000 People, Households with TV (% households), Immunization – DPT (% children 12-23 months), Immunization – measles (% children 12-23 months), Improved sanitation facilities (% of pop with access), Improved water source (% of pop with access), Tuberculosis (per 100,000 people).

In Pete’s paper, there is GDP (PPP constant $), Life expectancy (years), One year olds fully immunized against measles (%), One year olds fully immunized against TB (%), Physicians (per 100,000), Infants with low birth weight (%), Infant mortality rate (per 1,000), Maternal mortality rate per (100,000), Pop. with access to water (%), Pop. with access to sanitation (%), Pop.with access to at least one health facility (%), Extreme poverty (% < $1 per day), Radios (per 1,000), Telephones (per 1,000), TVs (per 1,000), Fatality due to measles, Adult literacy rate (%), Combined school enrollment (%)

Nicolas: It was good to meet you too. Hopefully, I can meet up with all the Suffolk econ people in December. You can watch me teach Ben how to drink;-)

Bests,
NC

“Why do people rob banks? Because that’s where the money is (duh). Why do warlords fight for control of the state? Because that’s where the money is!”

That’s a great way to explain the resource curse effect of aid.

And I should mention my congratulations to Nicolas Cachanosky, Per Bylund, and Will Luther who took home the top prizes this year. An anti-Coase wave swept the ASSC this year. The sociology wave, eh, not so much!