The New Institutionalism incorporates several approaches of institutional analysis from several social sciences. Among these approaches, the New Institutional Economics has propelled several advances in contemporaneous institutional analysis. Methodological pluralism has characterized this...

Comparative case studies involve the analysis and synthesis of the similarities, differences and patterns across two or more cases that share a common focus or goal in a way that produces knowledge that is easier to generalize about causal questions – how and why particular programmes or...

This report presents the methodological set-up for the SIMPHS3 study, whose overall objective is the analysis of how Health Information Technologies (HIT) may facilitate integration in the provision of health and social care services in specific European regions and settings. To this end a...

Many historians now reject quantitative methods as inappropriate to understanding past societies. It is argued here, however, that no sharp distinction between qualitative and quantitative concepts can be drawn, as almost any concept used to describe a past society is implicitly quantitative....

This paper examines recent attempts to rehabilitate pre-modern craft guilds as efficient economic institutions. Contrary to rehabilitation views, craft guilds adversely affected quality, skills, and innovation. Guild rent-seeking imposed deadweight losses on the economy and generated no...

This paper presents and discusses two case studies in the Portuguese motor vehicle industry – Salvador Caetano’s Ovar Industrial Division (SCOID), a ‘Brownfield site’ with minority Toyota ownership; and Autoeuropa, a ‘Greenfield site’ wholly owned by Volkswagen. Basically, it...

This paper reports a research project carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry New Zealand designed to scope the issue of water efficiency in New Zealand and demonstrate where the most significant gains in efficiency can occur. The paper describes the efficiency...

¿Es posible mejorar la calidad de la educación en América Latina y el Caribe? Según los expertos autores de estas páginas, hay soluciones pero no atajos: se trata de comenzar de cero y de apuntalar los aprendizajes sobre todo en los niveles preescolar y primario. Este volumen ofrece una...