Our article presents an index of institutional complementarity for 27 postcommunist economies, and evaluates a key claim of the Varieties of Capitalism paradigm. The empirical novelty of the index lies in its integration of informal institutions as well as its combination of macro-level and...

Growth empirics with institutional measures is performed for 25 transition countries overthe period 1990-95. Estimation results suggest that (particularly state) institutions aresignificant for growth and, especially, foreign direct investment (FDI), the latter in turnbeing important for the...

This paper investigates the importance of institutions as a determinant of growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in 25 transition countries for 1990-1998. It introduces some novel institutional measures, performs extensive sensitivity tests, and checks for reverse causation. Estimation...

The word “Qian rule” (hidden rule) has been known to all Chinese people since the publication of Wu Si's Qian Rule. This paper proposes that the Qian rule, in the economic sense, is the transaction of discretion between the buyer and the rule agent. The meticulousness of the formal rule and...

In many respects, the specifically Chinese way of transition from the planned to the market economy contradicts conventional wisdom of economics. This paper proposes an institutionalist explanation of the seeming paradox, which starts out from the structural diversity of the Chinese economy and...

Previous research, notably Baumol (1990), has highlighted the role of insti-tutions in channeling entrepreneurial supply into productive, unproductive or destructive activities. However, entrepreneurship is not only influenced by institutions—entrepreneurs often help shape institutions...

This paper investigates the determinants of economic growth emphasizing the role of institutional quality, social fragmentation, and increasing global integration on recent growth experience. Our longitudinal data consists of 103 countries covering the period 1992-2005. We find that democracies...

Abstract: The overwhelming majority of self-employed individuals are not entrepreneurial in the Schumpeterian sense. In order to unmistakably identify Schumpeterian entrepreneurs we focus on self-made billionaires (in USD) on Forbes Magazine's list who became wealthy by founding new firms. In...

Although institutional reforms are necessary to increase rates of entrepreneurship in European countries, we argue that one-size-fits-all reform strategies are unlikely to be successful. Reform strategies must be informed by a better knowledge of the varieties of European capitalism and the...

There is a growing consensus among economists and policy makers that institutions matter for economic development and that institutional reforms should be a priority for developing economies. Considering the emphasis on institutional reforms, this study asks whether a catch-up in institutional...