This paper explores the problem of credible commitment that public officials face with regard to institutional reform. Doug North points out that while economies grow as a result of the provision of governance, I argue that creating an entity with a geographic monopoly simultaneously limits the...

This Palgrave Pivot presents a series of political economy short stories of collective agency, weaving together the history of a progressive change with a discussion of the role of institutions to effect change. These stories highlight sustained activism around valuing caring, ending...

The paper reviews the current discussion on institutional change and institutional entrepreneurship. Specifically, it focuses on institutional change agents, by which we mean individuals whose actions can be shown to have contributed to formal or informal institutional change, to the benefit of...

A stock exchange and the presence of functioning equity markets are part and parcel of an advanced market-based financial system. Previous research has also established that equity markets function more efficiently in the presence of supporting institutions such as property rights and rule of...

A country's political and economic institutions are critical for economic prosperity. The literature abounds with institutional measures, precisely because institutions are not one dimensional. We use panel-unit-root and cointegration tests to examine the time-series properties of several...

This paper provides a framework to assess correlations between the change of institutional functions (political centralization, plurality, rule of law, security of property, economic liberty, measured by 12 indicators) and improvements in human development (income, education, health) and...