Building on a new model of institutions proposed by Aoki and the systemic approach to economic civilizations outlined by Kuran, this paper attempts an analysis of the cultural foundations of recent Chinese economic development. I argue that the cultural impact needs to be conceived as a creative...

This paper unfolds an analytical perspective on the evolution of property rights in Russia from Tsarist times until today, combining the theory on violence and institutions suggested by North, Wallis and Weingast with Foucault's analysis of power in society, especially his notions of biopolitics...

Increasingly, economists study narratives and their causal impact on economic processes. This paper proposes a new theoretical framework of narrative analysis that is based on the philosophy of language, especially speech act theory, motivated by the observation that the economic approaches...

Adopting a critical stance towards North's recent theory of institutional change and economic performance, the paper proposes a concept of global efficiency which encompasses not only standard allocative efficiency, but also the efficiency of political institutions in competition among groups. A...