The Size of Nations

By A. Alesina, Enrico Spolaore. 2003

1,169 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The authors of this timely and provocative book use the tools of economic analysis to examine the formation and change of political borders. They argue that while these issues have always been at the core of historical analysis, international economists have tended to regard the size of a country as "exogenous," or no more subject to explanation than the location of a mountain range or the course of a river. Alesina and Spolaore consider a country's borders to be subject to the same analysis as any other man-made institution. In The Size of Nations, they argue that the optimal size of a country is determined by a cost-benefit trade-off between the benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. In a large country, per capita costs may be low, but the heterogeneous preferences of a large population make it hard to deliver services and formulate policy. Smaller countries may find it easier to respond to citizen preferences in a democratic way. Alesina and Spolaore substantiate their analysis with simple analytical models that show how the patterns of globalization, international conflict, and democratization of the last two hundred years can explain patterns of state formation. Their aim is not only "normative" but also "positive" -- that is, not only to compute the optimal size of a state in theory but also to explain the phenomenon of country size in reality. They argue that the complexity of real world conditions does not preclude a systematic analysis, and that such an analysis, synthesizing economics, political science, and history, can help us understand real world events.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Finance, Political Science and International Relations

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f32e6ee5666bc722e9f3e01583992019a8551c11

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Citations in the corpus

Trade, Growth and the Size of Countries (2003, methodology): “For more discussion see Alesina and Spolaore (2003). 21 Obviously, not all the costs of government are fixed. Some depend positively on size, such as infrastructure spending or transfers. See Alesina and Wacziarg (1998) for an empirical examination of this point using crosscountry data.”
The roots of ethnic diversity (2012, methodology): “Our modeling framework is more closely related to Alesina and Spolaore (1997, 2003) , where the decision to break up or form nations (rather than”
Globalization and the welfare state: a retrospective (2004, neutral): “Does it pull the fiscal rug out from under redistributive social policy (section 5)?”
Regional trade agreements: blessing or burden? (2009, neutral): “ 39 Alesina and Spolaore (2003) discuss the costs and benefits of deep integration when studying the optimal size of countries.”
The stability and breakup of nations: a quantitative analysis (2011, background): “Theory suggests that the size of a nation is determined by the trade-off between scale economies that benefit larger nations and the costs of population heterogeneity that favor smaller countries (see, e.g., Alesina and Spolaore 1997, 2003; Bolton and Roland 1997).”
Fiscal decentralization and public sector efficiency: evidence from OECD countries (2013, background): “For further details on the relationship between openness and country size see also Alesina and Spolaore (2003, chapter 6) and Alesina and Wacziarg (1998, pp.306-307).”
When comparative advantage is not enough: business costs in small remote economies (2004, background): “Classic references include Robinson (1960) and Srinivasan (1986), a bibliography prepared by the World Bank contains 230 references since 1960,1 and recently Alesina and Spolaore (2004) have devoted a whole book to the * Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, DC 20433.”
An Economic Vulnerability Index: Its Design and Use for International Development Policy (2009, positive): “The assumption of a (negative) relationship between (population) size and the relative size of government activities is successfully tested by Alesina and Spolaore (2004).”
Relative Capability and Rebel Objective in Civil War (2006, background): “Alesina & Spolaore (2003) further argue that state size is positively associated with heterogeneity of preferences among the population.”