This paper proposes an analytical-cum-conceptual framework for understanding the nature of institutions as well as their changes. First, it proposes a new definition of institution based on the notion of common knowledge regarding self-sustaining features of social interactions with hope to...

This paper examines the effect of various types of institutional reforms in enhancing bilateral trade flows. We examine three types of institutional reforms' democratic political system, legal, and administrative reforms, and distinguish an initial effect from a permanent effect on bilateral...

Broadly speaking, institutional reformers decide about the sequencing of types of reforms, either addressing institutional quality or macroeconomic stability. This paper develops a dynamic population game, in which agents play a simple anonymous-exchange game of cooperating or defecting. Agents...

Innovation is key for economic growth and well-being. The capacity for innovation, however, is profoundly influenced by the quality of local institutions. Although the impact of national institutions on innovation is well-documented, the effects of subnational institutional variations on...

Social trust has been identified as a catalyst for reforms. We take the literature further in two ways. First, we make a fine-grained analysis of mechanisms through which social trust enables liberalizing reforms - by strengthening the ability to overcome obstacles in the political process...

Main description: Obwohl in Deutschland ein breiter Konsens darüber besteht, dass grundlegende institutionelle Reformen dringend erforderlich sind, um die seit vielen Jahren bestehenden Arbeitsmarktprobleme sowie die Probleme der Alterssicherung und Gesundheitsversorgung in den Griff zu...