Publication overview

Informal institutions, social capital and economic transition: reflections on a neglected dimension

Abstract

Few issues in economics have experienced such a grandiose revival as the role of institutions in economic development. “the success of the overall reform effort depends to a considerable extent on the existence of adequate institutions ...”. One might go further and state that what transition is all about is a redesign of the institutional framework of formerly centrally planned economies. A transition theory therefore will necessarily be a theory of institutional change. This paper focuses on one particular subset of institutional change, namely the role of informal institutions in economic transition.