Path dependence as a concept in institutional theories has become increasingly popular in economics and other social sciences. The key idea is that in a sequence of events, the latter events are not (completely) independent from those that occurred in the past. Yet, common usage of the concept...

Introduction : studying varieties of welfare capitalism / Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Philip Manow -- Business coordination, wage bargaining and the welfare state : Germany and Japan in comparative historical perspective / Philip Manow -- Strategic bargaining and social policy development :...