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The Grabbing Hand : Government Pathologies and Their Cures
The Grabbing Hand Government Pathologies and Their Cures Author:Andrei Shleifer, Robert W. Vishny In many countries, public sector institutions impose heavy burdens on economic life: heavy and arbitrary taxes retard investment, regulations enrich corrupt bureaucrats, state firms consume national wealth, and the most talented people turn to rent-seeking rather than productive activities. As a consequence of such predatory policies—descr... more »ibed in this book as the grabbing hand of the state—entrepreneurship lingers and economies stagnate. "[The Grabbing Hand's] range of materials is impressive: the chapters deal with the growth of European cities before the industrial revolution, corruption in post-Soviet Russia, privatisation in Eastern Europe, local government in the United States, and more. The authors keep technical apparatus to a minimum. By any standard, let alone the debased standard of most modern economics, the essays are lucid and literate." —The Economist« less