The best way to secure this favourable prospect is to continue with the implementation of the necessary reforms in markets and institutions and with the adoption of best practices on the basis of a free exchange and competition of ideas and social values. References: Aghion, P. and P. Howitt (1998), “Endogeneus growth theory”, Cambridge, Mass. The MIT Press. Aghion, P. and P. Howitt (2005), “Appropriate Growth Policy: A Unifying Framework”, Schumpeter Lecture, Nice, September, revised December. Alesina, A. and F. Giavazzi (2006), The Future of Europe, Reform or Decline, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Alesina, A. and L. H. Summers (1993), “Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence,” Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, vol. 25(2), pp. 151–162. Aristotle (ca. 350 BC) Nicomachean Ethics, translation by H. Rackham, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., Revised edition 1934. Arnone, M., B. J. Laurens, J.-F. Segalotto, and M. Sommer (2007), Central Bank Autonomy: Lessons from Global Trends, IMF Working Paper, WP/07/88. BIS Review 43/2007  9  Bassanini, A. and R. Duval (2006), “Employment patterns in OECD countries: Reassessing the role of policies and institutions”, Social, employment and migration working paper series No 35 (OECD, Paris, June). Baufield, E. (1958), The moral basis of a backward society, New York, Free Press. Blanchard, O. (2004), “The economic future of Europe”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 18, pp. 3-26. Blanchard, O. and J. Wolfers (2000), “Shocks and institutions and the rise of European unemployment. The aggregate evidence”, Economic Journal, vol. 110-1, pp. 1-33.
BIS Review 137/1999  6  Today we can see similar developments in the IT industry. Besides the giant Ericssson, Sweden has many different IT enterprises. But growth is still being driven not so much by users of the new communication facilities as by the production of new possibilities. To continue with the comparison, in the next phase people started to travel by rail. A journey from Stockholm to Gothenburg admittedly took 11 hours and 45 minutes in 1865 but that was nothing compared with a horse-drawn carriage. Travelling became quicker and more efficient; people gained new impressions and learned new things. Sweden became smaller. Today we travel on the Internet by gathering information simply and efficiently from all over the world, largely for the price of a local telephone call. Millions of people in all parts of the world are indeed using this facility and in that sense the world has now become smaller. The really important phase, however, was when the railways began to affect processes for production and distribution. Previously, production in Sweden had been located in the vicinity of iron ore and forests. The units were numerous and not particularly efficient; transportation was slow. In the county of Värmland, for example, there were sixty different sites for the production of iron in 1870. When the railways had been constructed, it was easier to concentrate production to fewer sites; by around 1900 there were only six sites and they were accordingly considerably more efficient.