We have become increasingly dependent on a national technological fabric that contains software, computers, and communication networks as essential components. Unfortunately, our ability to build affordable software systems for which there exists compelling evidence that the systems delivers their services in a manner that satisfies certain critical properties has not kept pace with the importa...

Acknowledgements Although the actual writing of this thesis has been done by one person, there are a number of people without whom this thesis had never been written. These people, by offering support, ideas, critiques and various comments related and completely unrelated to the subject of this thesis, have guided the writing of this thesis as much as I did myself. First and foremost, out of a ...

It is now widely accepted that many countries in East Asia achieved a remarkable record of high and sustained economic growth. This achievement is possibly one of the most important economic developments in the past generation. Explaining East Asia’s success is extremely important, for at least two reasons. First, such an explanation might show the way to replicate this success in other regions...