Economic Growth Of Small Nations

Abstract

By a small nation I mean an independent sovereign state, with a population of ten million or less. Setting the dividing line at ten million is a rough decision, made with an eye to the distribution of nations by size as it exists today and has existed over the last fifty to seventy-five years. Were I to draw the line for 1800, it would have been at a much lower number — considering that the largest state within the European family of nations at that time had a population below forty million. And were I to draw it a hundred years hence, the dividing line would be far higher — assuming no devastating demographic catastrophe.

This paper was prepared for a symposium on ‘The Challenge of Development ’ on the occasion of the inauguration of the new building of the Eliezer Kaplan School at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and is published with the consent of the Kaplan School authorities.