If change is to come, Mr Di Tella knows, it must start with the 2, 200 islanders.

ECONOMIST: Argentina and Britain

When next month he meets Robin Cook, Britain's new foreign secretary, Mr Di Tella will renew his efforts to start talks on the islands' status.

ECONOMIST: Wary partners in the South Atlantic

Hence Mr Di Tella's trip to New York.

ECONOMIST: Falkland Islands

Its top officials have no idea how many public employees the province has, since money is siphoned off to finance votes-for-jobs networks, according to Sergio Berensztein, a political scientist at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires.

ECONOMIST: The president seeks allies, far and wide

Setting about the numbers with their econometric tool-box, Messrs Di Tella and MacCulloch not only do that but also control for everything they can think of, check for assorted biases and distortions, and consider different models of underlying economic behaviour.

ECONOMIST: Working man’s burden | The