Search results for "institutional economics"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
Waging War Against Mechanical Man. Frank H. Knight's Critique of Behavioristic Psychology
2002
The major theme of this essay is to explore the rationale of Knight's campaign against the adoption of behaviorism in economics. We also attempt to qualify whether Knight's methodological criticism may somewhat undermine his recently acquired credentials as an institutionalist economist. In so doing we focus our attention in particular, but not exclusively, on his debate with the institutionalist Morris A. Copeland. In the first section we try to explain why behaviorism gained consensus among institutional economists, and we also provide a brief overview of the main behavioristic themes as they were presented in contemporary economic literature. The second section is devoted to Knight's rea…
Economic Degrowth and the Collapse of Institutional Order: Theory and Propositions
2022
Integrating insights from new institutional economics and studies on the collapse of past empires, we sketch a process model that links economic degrowth to the collapse of institutional orders. Our thought experiment starts from emphasizing the importance of institutions and enforcement mechanisms in maintaining a sufficient level of economic activity to sustain public costs. We flip this established logic and elucidate the negative role of economic degrowth in the weakening of the public sector’s ability to enforce institutional rules. Internal and external shocks further shake the stability of the institutional order and, at some point, individuals’ belief in institutional rules and nor…
The macroeconomic effects of electricity-sector privatization
2021
Abstract We examine the macroeconomic effects of privatizing the ownership structure of the electricity market, using a novel indicator of privatization which covers 90 advanced, emerging market, and developing economies, since 1974. Privatization reforms, on average, improve outcomes in the provision of electricity and have positive macroeconomic effects: output and employment increase in the years following electricity-sector privatization reforms. Reforms are also associated also with an increase in income inequality, but the effects are small, on average. These impacts vary according to the business cycle, quality of institutions, and a country's development status, with macroeconomic a…
Analyzing Social Entrepreneurship from an Institutional Perspective: Evidence from Spain
2010
In recent years, social entrepreneurship (SE) has been regarded as an important source of social, economic and environmental wealth, and many scholars are focusing their inquiries on this emerging area. Little is known, however, concerning the environmental factors that affect this entrepreneurial phenomenon. In this research, we analyze how these factors affect both the emergence and implementation of SE in the highly entrepreneurial Spanish region of Catalonia, using institutional economics as the main conceptual framework. We also apply an inductive theory, building an empirical approach to conducting a multiple-case study in order to develop theoretical propositions that enhance our und…
Institutions and Rural Stagnation in Eastern Indonesia
2018
This article addresses why agricultural productivity is still very low in peripheral parts of eastern Indonesia. The paper identifies rules and norms underpinning traditionalism. It further addresses how increased land-use efficiency can be supported while maintaining communal land ownership. Information collected from in-depth interviews was analysed based on new institutional economics (NIE) theory. I argue that the government, adat leaders, the Catholic Church, leading businesses, and internationally funded NGOs are organisations contributing to the status quo. Policy recommendations include awareness among international donors of what NGOs really do. Civil society organisations could co…
Money Doctoring After World War II: Arthur I. Bloomfield and the Federal Reserve Missions to South Korea
2009
In this paper we analyse the scientific contributions of the New York Fed economist Arthur I. Bloomfield. A Canadian born economist, in 1941 Bloomfield took his PhD in economics at the University of Chicago, under the supervision of Jacob Viner and then joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a Research Economist and stayed there until 1958. In this position, Bloomfield combined scholarly research on recent economic history and international financial and banking problems with active service as a member of various committees and commissions, both in the United States and abroad. While on leave from the Fed, he accepted appointments as a consultant and advisor to various …
Explaining the process of change taking place in legal rules and social norms: The cases of institutional economics and new institutional economics
1995
This paper deals with the phenomenon of institutional change and has been conceived as an attempt to answer the following question: Can we retain theimage of institutional change contained in a theory when we replace a methodological foundation on which the theory was built by a different and alternative one? For an answer to be developed, special attention is paid to the contributions made by institutional economists (IE) and those made by transaction cost—new institutional economists (NIE). The question clearly shows that it is a paper on applied methodology rather than a survey on institutional change contributions. Because of that, its main purpose is not to increase our knowledge about…
Socio-cultural factors and transnational entrepreneurship
2011
This article addresses theoretical and empirical issues concerning the emergent field of transnational entrepreneurship. We discuss issues regarding the antecedents of transnational entrepreneurship focusing specifically on the socio-cultural factors affecting this phenomenon in the Spanish context. Entrepreneurship, ethnic and transnational entrepreneurship literature is combined with institutional approach to explain what and how different socio-cultural factors influence the emergence and development of transnational entrepreneurship in Catalonia (in the north-east of Spain). We do this by looking at four case studies of transnational entrepreneurs with different ethnicity (Ecuadorian, …
Risk Taking by Banks in the Transition Countries
2007
The banking sectors of the transition countries have progressed remarkably in the last 15 years. In fact, banking in most transition countries has largely shaken off the traumas of the transition era. At the start of the 21st century banks in these countries look very much like banks elsewhere. That is, they are by no means problem free but they are struggling with the same issues as banks in other emerging market countries. There have been a surprisingly large number of studies that have told us about the performance of these banks but we know very little about their risk taking behaviour and how the banking environment influences it.
Do debt crises boost financial reforms?
2014
"Published online: 15 Aug. 2014"