This paper surveys alternative approaches to the emergence and evolution of institutions. The challenge is to develop frameworks capable of capturing both stability and change. We follow a “descaling” approach to show how founding assumptions about economics—namely, alternative assumptions...

The aim of this paper is to study the nature of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in Cameroon through a three-step approach: (i) study the stationarity of the chronic, (ii) test of causality between variables, and (iii) estimate the appropriate model. The study...

This paper investigates the impact of complementarity reforms on growth and how it depends on GDP per capita. Based on reform data for six policy areas compiled from various sources during the period 1994-2006 for over 100 countries, we compute composite indicators of reform level and...

This article intends to understand the mechanisms underlying the receiver reactions towards a taboo advertising stimulus. For this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted in two different cultural contexts. This study reveals the importance of the normative social influence and the ambivalent...

This paper aims to quantify and compare inequalities of opportunity in health across European countries considering two alternative normative ways of treating the correlation between effort, as measured by lifestyles, and circumstances, as measured by parental and childhood characteristics,...

We analyze the relationship between legal institutions, innovation and growth. We compare a rigid (law set ex-ante) legal system and a exible one (law set after observing current technology). The exible system dominates in terms of welfare, amount of innovation and output growth at intermediate...

The process of development is linked to the rise of an integrated and competitive economy and polity that allow a maximal division of labor and innovation. This process relies on two intertwined dynamics. First, in the establishment of the rule of law, legal instruments are appropriated by those...