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2018, Policy Research Working Papers
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper takes the form of an extended literature review, outlining the key ideas that will need to be developed further in the course of the IPPG Research Programme. After an extended introduction, the next two sections are conceptual, the former elucidating key concepts and definitions, the latter examining various approaches to the analysis of institutions relevant for economic growth. Then the paper reviews much of the available evidence linking institutions and growth and covers in some detail the evidence regarding economic institutions, confirming that institutions matter. However, the findings from different studies are far from consistent in terms of identifying exactly what it is that matters. Given the prevalence of weak or poorly functioning states amongst the poorest countries of the world, the paper also reviews literature on the political aspects of development, particularly in relation to the role of institutions. Likewise, the paper selectively illustrates the ide...
International Journal of Business and Social Research, 2016
Strong institutions are often viewed as part answers to Africa's development dilemma. But given the resource constraints of many African countries, one would need to be selective as to which institution or institutions to commit scarce resources. An attempt to strengthen all institutions at the same time could be rather daunting. And many questions would remain. First, what is the relative importance of one institution to another? Second, whether all institutions exert an equal impact on comprehensive development as they do on economic growth. This paper on Institutions and Development, first published in 2007 tries to answer these questions. It has been modified (in the 2016 version) for three reasons-1, to bring the data up to date, 2, to use a different and possibly more accurate econometric model (fixed effect) for the analysis and 3, to assess if the same institutions remain more critical than others, as observed in 2007. Even though the rule of law institution would seem, in this revised version, to have a slightly better impact on GDP/Capita, government effectiveness is still dominant in both non-differenced and differenced models, especially when comprehensive development is considered.
2004
This paper addresses the political foundations for economic development in Africa and does so by exploring two basic themes: political accountability and political order. We say that political elites are accountable when, in order to retain office, they must employ power to serve the interests of those whom they rule. By political order we mean the extent to which people employ coercion to protect property rights rather than to trespass upon them. Where there is accountability, many hold, then those with power make policies that enhance the welfare of private citizens, as by rendering them more prosperous (e.g. World Bank 1991). And where there is political order, then there is security for property rights, rendering it in the interests of private agents to invest, to labor, and to generate higher levels of income .
In general, it can be argued that institutional framework a country or region designs plays a significant role in crafting, applying or even success of public policy. Drawing lessons from how Asia exploited the developmental state's concept by designing institutions which targeted key public policy areas such as education, health, domestic savings, and rural development, or aligned infrastructures such as roads, transport and ports, to drive economic development. The paper explores how this approach can be applied in sub-Saharan Africa (or individual countries). The objective is to extricate constant factors impacting development both in ahistorical and atemporal terms. The investigation is guided by the key question: whether quality of institutions and institutional analysis can help explain development failures in Africa? Hence, on one part, it probes institutions, institution-making, public policy making and what uniquely the Asian developmental state did that can help illuminate institutional role in policymaking and application. In pursuing this objective, the paper is cognisant of the question by Brousseau et al. asked, regarding generalizability of institutional capabilities, " If growth-enhancing institutions are identified in a specific country, can other countries learn from and transplant these ". The investigation concludes that in public policy and development strategy-making institutions do matter as they delimit or even help create possibilities necessary for development and its sustenance, and to a certain extent, they are the vital constant (factors) that explains development differentiations in different geographic spaces or time periods.
The article tries to advance our understanding of institutional economics by critically examining the currently dominant discourse on institutions and economic development. First, I argue that the discourse suffers from a number of theoretical problems – its neglect of the causality running from development to institutions, its inability to see the impossibility of a free market, and its belief that the freest market and the strongest protection of private property rights are best for economic development. Second, I point out that the supposed evidence showing the superiority of 'liberalized' institutions relies too much on cross-section econometric studies, which suffer from defective concepts, flawed measurements and heterogeneous samples. Finally, I argue that the currently dominant discourse on institutions and development has a poor understanding of changes in institutions themselves, which often makes it take unduly optimistic or pessimistic positions about the feasibility of institutional reform.
World Development, 2010
Our paper presents a critical review of the literature on institutional change and the role of institutions in economic development. We discuss the roles and interrelationships of formal and informal institutions and introduce a collection of papers addressing this topic in a variety of development settings.
The paper tries to improve our understanding on the role of institutions in development by critically examining the current orthodox discourse on institutions and highlighting some of its key problems. After discussing some definitional problems, the chapter examines a number of problems in the orthodox literature arising from the widespread failure to distinguish between the forms and the functions of institution. Then it critically examines the excessive emphasis on property rights in the orthodox literature. Finally, it discusses a number of problems that arise from the simplistic view on institutional change that underlies the orthodox view on institutional persistence.
World Bank, Washington DC, 2008
Journal of Contextual Economics, 2019
This study borrows from Amartya Sen's capability approach in order to enrich the analytical tools with which to study the institutions and development link. By expanding on the theoretical notion of contextual conversion factors, I elaborate a conceptual framework with which it is possible to identify the channels through which institutions can affect development. I follow the human development paradigm for the conceptuali-zation of development and visualize institutions as features that characterize the context within which the life of individuals is embedded. In the attempt to refrain from a one-size-fits-all logic, I concentrate on the study of institutions at a level lying in between the country (macro) and the individual (micro). Therefore, I refer to the meso level for the analysis of institutions, which implies that the framework is adequate for studying institutions at a subnational level. This study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the institutions-development link through (i) the analytical framework proposed, (ii) an extension to commonly referred-to definitions of institutions and (iii) an accurate literature review that combines approaches of development economics and of institutional analysis. A meso approach to the study of institutions is thought to contribute to a better understanding of complementarities between local state capacity and macro-level policies and to the role that institutions can play in decreasing within-country poverty and inequality.
2024
This work would not have been completed without the help of several people. Thus, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the realization of this thesis. Special thanks to my father. I would also like to thank my thesis supervisor Dalila CHENAF-NICET for her guidance, kindness, and support over the years. I also thank my parents (Décius and Ivena ASSE) for their support during this long journey, my brother, and sisters. My thanks also go to my second family (GDM Ambarès, ACNA). I would also like to thank my fellow doctoral students, in particular Edem ASSOGBAVI, and the professors and staff of the BSE laboratory, in particular Dephine LAHET, Eric ROUGIER and Anne Gael VAUBOURG, for their advice and support. I also thank the staff at UNU-Wider for their support and assistance during my stay as a visiting PhD Fellow, especially
HDCA Conference on Equality, …, 2008
Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development
Impact of various efforts for improving the socioeconomic conditions of the poor in the developing countries can be maximized through proper management and implementation of development programmes/projects. Effective project management and implemeatation are also crucial for sustainable development. Institutions, which encompass entities at the local level, community level, regional level, national level and in parastatals, project management units and so on are integral parts of project management and implementation. However, despite strong statements about the essential role of institutional development, and the realization of its potential contribution to development efforts, the issue of institutional development has received relatively little attention by policy makers, planners and implementators of development programmes. This paper presents some issues on institutional development which are currently being focused on. In the context of developing countries, institutional development should not be looked at merely from a technical point of view and should not be taken merely with a distinct project entity. !\n interdisciplinary approach to institutional development, not a partial and iterative approach, is required for efficient management of development programmes/projects. I. Introduction: Institution and Institutional Development What constitutes an "institution" is a subject of continuing debate among social scientists, planners and implementors of development projects. The interchangeable use of the terms "institutions" and "organizations" also contributes to ambiguity and confusion. But it is generally accepted that there are (i) organizations that arc not institutions, (ii) institutions that arc not organizations, and (iii) organizations that arc institutions (or vice versa, institution~ that are organizations).
International Journal of Social Economics, 2012
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the alleged link between institutional quality and economic performance in 27 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries during the period 1984-2003. Design/methodology/approach-Four institutions' quality indicators, namely government stability, corruption, ethnic tensions and socioeconomic conditions, along with other control and policy variables, are employed in a panel data analysis. Findings-The institutional variables assume a key role in the process of economic development whereas the control variables display a limited effect. Thus, the "conventional variables" of economic theory may not be able to fully explain the SSA experience. Research limitations/implications-Future research efforts should explore how the vast changes experienced by the countries in that region influenced their economic evolution during the last decades. Practical implications-Policy makers should primarily focus on improving institutional quality, which is likely to positively affect economic performance in SSA countries. Social implications-Improving institutional infrastructure (enhancing rule of law and quality regulation, improving contract enforcement, securing property rights and reducing uncertainty) play a key role in delivering long-run economic development and social prosperity. Originality/value-The paper analyzes the impact of institutional quality on economic performance using data from 27 SSA countries.
Journal of Economic Surveys, 2013
Institutions, crucial for the analysis of how agents deal with
Purpose -The Brazilian municipalities show a huge disparity in income level. The GDP per capita difference between the richest and the poorest municipalities is about 190 times, according to IBGE (2000) database. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of Brazilian municipalities institutional quality on their levels of per capita income. Design/methodology/approach -Institutionalist theory provides a plausible explanation for the gap among municipalities income level. Many empirical studies based on cross-country data have found a high correlation between institutional quality and the level of economic development, but there is little research concerning the extreme inequality within the national territory and its relationship with institutional quality. The theory suggests that the institutions matter for the level of economic development because of their effects on political power distribution, generation of economic opportunities, innovation, human capital accumulation, and so on. Findings -Overall, an increase by one point in the average quality of the institutions is able to increase the average GDP per capita around 20 percent. This means that each point of increase in the quality of the municipality institutions is able to increase the municipality GDP per capita by R$1,000 (around US$600). Originality/value -This is an important research that sheds light to the importance of institutional quality at local level and its influence over growth in a developing country.
Revue de la régulation, 2009
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