Institutional Capital : Reclaiming Institutions as a Form of Capital

Economists have recognized that ldquo;institutions matterrdquo; and the renewal of Institutional Economics has gained a large scientific authority, but institutions, as unit of analysis, stay a concept not understood on all its dimensions. Recently, a new concept appeared in the economic literature was ldquo;institutional capitalrdquo;, without neither satisfied definition nor scientific demonstration. In this paper, we adopt the ldquo;Resourced-Based Viewrdquo; approach to show that some specific institutions involved in economic interactions can be considered as a form of capital, namely ldquo;institutional capitalrdquo;. The theoretical validity of such a concept is discussed. The main conclusions of the paper concern the promises of this notion for future researches on growth theory, economic development theories, organizational theories, and overall on Institutional Economics. We underline the importance to test the empirical strength of this economic resource. Meanwhile, we may accept that ldquo;institutional capital mattersrdquo;, overall for economic development