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Imperfect Institutions: Possibilities and Limits of Reform
Thráinn EggertssonThe emergence of New Institutional Economics toward the end of the twentieth century profoundly changed our ideas about the organization of economic systems and their social and political foundations. Imperfect Institutions explores recent developments in this field and pushes the discussion forward by allowing for incomplete knowledge of social systems and unexpected system dynamics and, above all, by focusing explicitly on institutional policy. Empirical studies extending from Africa to Iceland are cited in support of the theoretical argument.
In Imperfect Institutions Thráinn Eggertsson extends his attempt to integrate and develop the new field that began with his acclaimed Economic Behavior and Institutions (1990), which has been translated into six languages. This latest work analyzes why institutions that create relative economic backwardness emerge and persist and considers the possibilities and limits of institutional reform.
Thráinn Eggertsson is Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland and Global Distinguished Professor of Politics at New York University. Previously published works include Economic Behavior and Institutions (1990) and Empirical Studies in Institutional Change with Lee Alston and Douglass North (1996).
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Cover
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Title
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Copyright
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Acknowledgments
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Contents
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INTRODUCTION. Opportunities Lost
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PART I. Imperfect Institutions—Theory
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CHAPTER 1. Imperfect Institutions and Growth Theory in Modern Economics
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CHAPTER 2. Barriers to Growth: Institutions and Social Technologies
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CHAPTER 3. Competing Social Models
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CHAPTER 4. Stable Poverty and Unstable Growth
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CHAPTER 5. The Political Logic of Bad Economics
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CHAPTER 6. Inefficient Social Norms
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PART II. Empirical Interlude: Poverty Trap—A Case Study
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CHAPTER 7. Why Iceland Starved
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PART III. Institutional Policy
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CHAPTER 8. Applying Social Technologies: Lessons from the Old Theory of Economic Policy
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CHAPTER 9. Degrees of Freedom in Institutional Reform
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CHAPTER 10. Eluding Poverty Traps, Escaping History
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CHAPTER 11. Minimal Property Rights and Legal Transplants
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CONCLUSION. The Subtle Art of Major Institutional Reform
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Notes
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Bibliography
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Author Index
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Subject Index
- 978-0-472-02354-7 (ebook)
- 978-0-472-03039-2 (paper)