The David Hume Institute Report

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

Hume Occasional Paper No. 56

ISBN 1-870482-48-4

David Simpson,

Brian G M Main,

Alan Peacock,

and

Fabian Zuleeg.

The Sponsorship of MacDonald Orr Ltd. is gratefully acknowledged.

Foreword

This is Hume Occasional Paper examines the prospects for the Scottish economy of moving from devolution to independence. This is a topic that is generating an increasing amount of discussion, and with the elections for the Scottish Parliament in May 1999 interest in the implications of such a move is rising by the day. The analysis presented in this paper attempts to lay out the problems that are likely to arise in such a move and to examine the likely impact on the economic prosperity of Scotland. The arguments for and against independence run far deeper and wider than the economics of the matter, but these other considerations are left to others to address. Financial support for this research was provided by MacDonald Orr Ltd. to whom the Institute is most grateful. As always, it is necessary to clarify that neither the sponsor nor the Institute itself hold any collective view on these policy matters.

Hector L MacQueen and Brian G M Main

Directors

April 1999

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