scholarly journals The Spanish Empire and its legacy: fiscal redistribution and political conflict in colonial and post-colonial Spanish America

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Grafe ◽  
Maria Alejandra Irigoin
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contingent Event ◽  
Economic Failure

The comparative history of the Americas has been used to identify factors determining longterm economic growth. One approach, new institutional economics (NIE), claims that the colonial origins of respective institutional structures explain North American success and Spanish American failure. Another argues that differences in resources encountered by Europeans fostered divergent levels of equality impacting on institutions and growth. This paper challenges the theoretical premises and historical evidence of both views offering a historicized, statistically and economically validated explanation for the institutional and economic development of Spanish America. First, it revises the structure of the fiscal system challenging the characterization of Spain as an absolutist ruler. Secondly, an analysis of fiscal data at regional levels assesses the performance of the Imperial state. It shows the existence of massive revenue redistribution within the colonies, disputing the notion of a predatory extractive empire based on endowments as the source of original inequality. Finally, we discuss how a contingent event, the imprisonment of the Spanish king in 1808, contributed to the disintegration of a 300-year-old empire. The crisis of legitimacy in the empire turned fiscal interdependence between regions into beggar-thy-neighbour strategies and internecine conflict. We conclude by arguing for a reversal of the causality from weak institutions causing economic failure to fiscal (and economic) failure leading to political instability.

Governing the Environment: the Intitutional Economics Approach

2009 ◽  
pp. 61-86
Author(s):  
Arild Vatn
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Plural Rationalities ◽  
Jel Classifications

- Analyzing environmental governance implies foremost to analyze institutional structures and their implications. In doing so, the present paper utilizes insights primarily from the tradition of classical institutional economics. The paper is divided in three. In the first part I describe the main features of the classical position and compare it briefly with that of neoclassical economics and the tradition of new institutional economics. In the second part I clarify what is considered the main aspects of governance as seen from an institutional perspective. In part three I move to the more specific area of environmental governance. The concept of resource regimes is defined. Moreover I analyze how different regimes influence which environmental problems appear and how they can be treated. I discuss how institutions influence the formation and articulation of knowledge and values, how they form and protect interests, how they influence the level of transaction costs and hence the possibilities for coordination, and finally how they form the motivations underlying human choices in concrete contexts. Given that all these variables are shown to be endogenous to the institutional system, the use of comparative analysis in the assessment of various governance options is emphasized.Keywords: classical institutional economics, interdependence, resource regimes, value articulation, interest protection, transaction costs, plural rationalities.JEL classifications: B52; Q50; D02; D70.

scholarly journals Experiments as a Tool of Verifying Efficiency of Implicitly Agreed-Upon Market Organizations

Ekonomika ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał M. Jakubowski ◽  
Paweł Kuśmierczyk
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Coordination Problem ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Potential Market ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Pareto Efficient ◽  
Market Organization

We analyse the possibility of an experimental study of the efficiency of market institutional structures. In the paper “On the new institutionalism of markets: the market as an organization” by R. Richter, the implicitly agreed upon market organization is regarded as a Nash equilibrium of a game between potential market participants. The solution of such coordination problem is not necessarily Pareto-efficient but could be efficient given assumptions of New Institutional Economics (i. e. could be NIE-efficient). This framework can be very helpful as a descriptive tool used to explain the persistence or transition of market institutions, but in can be difficult to be verified empirically.Economic experiments have been successfully applied to analyse market institutions and to compare their efficiency. In the paper, we demonstrate how this methodology could be used to analyse the “spontaneous” market organizations reached as a tacit agreement in a coordination problem. We also advocate that economic experiments can be a very useful tool to verify the efficiency of such institutions.

Institutional Structures and the Prevalence of Foreign Ownership of Firms

2018 ◽  
pp. 455-479
Author(s):  
Otuo Serebour Agyemang
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Foreign Ownership ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Regulatory Quality ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
High Voice

This chapter examines how country-level institutional structures influence the prevalence of foreign ownership of firms in Africa. It reinforces the new institutional economics perspective by empirically highlighting that institutional structures influence the prevalence of foreign ownership of companies in an economy. Using archival data from 39 African economies, the authors found that there is a significant positive association between regulatory quality and foreign ownership prevalence. Also, foreign ownership is prevalent in African countries that are politically stable and embrace rule of law. However, the authors found that countries with high voice and accountability structures are associated with low foreign ownership prevalence.

scholarly journals Institutional Economics: Then and Now

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Significant Element ◽  
History Of

This article gives a history of American institutionalism, and a brief comparison with the more recent “new” institutional economics. Institutionalism was a significant element in American economics between the Wars, but declined rapidly thereafter. The article outlines the movement's initial appeal, its contributions, and the reasons for its decline. Although the “new” institutionalism has few direct ties to the older tradition, some interesting commonalities are found and discussed. Links to the “new institutionalism” in sociology and political science, and to historical work on other “institutional” traditions are also mentioned.

scholarly journals Suchard and the Emergence of Traveling Salesmen in Switzerland, 1860–1920

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Rossfeld
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Integration ◽  
Market Research ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Social Image ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Product Sales ◽  
Critical Link

Based on theoretical findings of the new institutional economics, this examination of the history of the Swiss chocolate company Suchard (founded in 1826) and the Verband Reisender Kaufleute der Schweiz (Association of Swiss Commercial Travelers) describes the economic significance, social image, and everyday life of traveling salesmen between 1860 and 1920. By 1900, commercial travelers formed a critical link between the enterprise and the market, helping to drive the vertical integration of production and distribution. They enjoyed high standing within the company, and many were promoted to executive levels. Traveling salesmen were largely responsible for procuring information and expanding product sales in an era that preceded specialized market research and the domination of advertising companies.

scholarly journals History of the institutionalist paradigm: main stages and characteristics

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (52) ◽  
pp. 49-71
Author(s):  
Ostap Salovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Industrial Transformation ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Methodological Considerations

The article deals with a retrospective and prospective analysis of the economic thought development within the institutionalist approach. The purpose of the research is to conduct a theoretical and methodological investigation of the history of institutionalism from its origin to the present, identify the main components of the institutionalist paradigm and pinpoint directions of its further research. The author highlights socio-economic conditions for the appearance and growth of institutionalism. The paper also features main scientific and methodological achievements of old institutionalists, namely, T. Veblen, J. Commons, and V. Mitchell. In addition, it substantiates the composition and evolution stages of the institutionalist paradigm. In the subsequent sections, the article provides a brief overview of the institutionalist theories of capitalism and industrial transformation in the 1930s–1980s. Moreover, the peculiarities of scientific concepts of the new institutional economics are revealed, in particular, the findings by R. Coase, A. Alchian, G. Demsetz, O. Williamson, J. Buchanan, D. North. The study refutes the disappearance of interest in the old institutionalism of Veblen, Commons, and Mitchell after the 1930s and emphasizes the peculiarities of its development, revival, and coexistence with new institutional economics in the 1980s–2000s. The article also focuses on the methodology and theoretical concepts of the new wing of old institutionalism, namely, of W. Samuels, J.R. Stanfield, W. Dugger, and G. Hodgson. In addition, it also outlines the post-nonclassical nature, heterogeneity, stability, and adaptability of the institutionalist paradigm. A number of common features and clear criteria for attributing the theories to the paradigm were identified. The theoretical and methodological interests of the institutionalist research in the 21st century are presented, in particular, as to the differences in economic development of countries, quality of legal norms, correlation of institutions and culture, peculiarities of elections and political institutions, relationships of individuals and groups, social capital issues, etc. The results of this study are important for a proper understanding of the fundamentality of the institutionalist approach, as well as for the correct interpretation of particular theories or methodological considerations.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Teller
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Financial Success ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of

The book makes three main interventions. First is the use of Jewish economic history to understand both the development of Jewish society and its relations with the surrounding world. The methodology of New institutional economics, emphasizing the connection between economic and cultural factors, is employed. Second is the study of the Jews’ economic roles in the specific context of magnate estates in eighteenth-century Poland-Lithuania. In this late feudal setting, Jews achieved enormous financial success, which they translated into improved social status and even power. This process is at the heart of the analysis here. Third is the history of the Radziwiłł family and its estates in Lithuania. From a low point at the beginning of the period, the family reached the pinnacle of its power at the end. This rise was based on increased estate incomes, the importance for which of Jewish economic activity is examined here.

The Private Credit Market, the Bibliotheke Enkteseon, and Public Services in Roman Egypt

2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (04) ◽  
pp. 629-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Lerouxel
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Roman Egypt ◽  
History Of ◽  
Private Credit ◽  
Positive Effect

This article examines the history of the private credit market in Roman Egypt between 30 BCE and approximately 170 CE. After examining how the notion of the market and the New Institutional Economics are employed with regard to ancient economic history, it explains the positive effect that systems of drafting and registering contracts had on the private credit market and, in particular, the role of the bibliotheke enkteseon, created by the Roman administration between 68 and 72. The article concludes with an explanation of how this institution was created by analyzing the interaction between the private credit market and the way public services were financed in the Roman world.

scholarly journals Social capital, ‘trust’ and the role of networks in Julfan trade: informal and semi-formal institutions at work

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebouh Aslanian
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Social Capital Theory ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

This essay examines the role of ‘trust’ and cooperation in early modern long-distance trade. While most literature on the subject posits trust as a given attribute of long-distance merchant communities and not as a factor in need of historical explanation or analysis, this essay seeks to provide a historical explanation for the creation and role of trust in such communities. It focuses on the history of Armenian merchants from New Julfa, Isfahan, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The central theoretical model this essay relies upon to explain trust among Julfan Armenian merchants derives from ‘social capital’ theory as elaborated in sociology and economic sociology, as well as theory from the New Institutional Economics associated with the influential work of Avner Greif. Unlike the latter body of work, however, this essay argues that Julfan trust must be understood not solely as an outcome of informal institutions such as reputation-regulating mechanisms discussed by Greif in his work on Maghribi Jews of the medieval period, but also as a result of the simultaneous combination of both informal and semi-formal legal institutions. In the Julfan context, the essay thus focuses on a merchant arbitrage institution known as the Assembly of Merchants, which enabled Julfan merchants to generate and maintain trust, trustworthiness and uniform norms necessary for collective action and cooperation.

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