Princeton Univers. Press Stasavage, D: States of Credit

"This is social science at its best. David Stasavage offers an original thesis, develops it carefully, and supports it with historical and quantitative evidence. A tour de force."--Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"The fundamental idea of this interesting book is well-defined and convincing--size mattered in the construction and implementation of political institutions that represented debt-holder interests. The book combines game theory and case studies with a novel use of comparative analyses to test the main hypotheses. It leaves readers with a provocative suggestion: the road to stable sovereign finances was not paved by republican city states per se, but by their entrenched town oligarchies."--Regina Grafe, Northwestern University""States of Credit" evaluates a novel conjecture regarding the relations between political representation and public debt. It is an important contribution to the literature."--Avner Greif, Stanford University ...