"The paper sets out a new asset-based framework for the economic borders of the state. It considers how the economic borders have changed in response to major shocks, notably in the 1980s, and the economic concepts which lay behind these shifts—notably, on the microeconomic side, the market and government failure framework and, on the macroeconomic side, the monetarist challenge to the Keynesian paradigm. The missing elements are the balance sheet and the treatment of assets, debt, and the interests of future generations. Particular attention is paid to utility and infrastructure assets as core public goods, and to the neglect of natural capital."

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