Both economic research and the history of foreign aid suggest that the largest barriers to development arise from a society's institutions - its norms and rules. This book explains how institutions drive economic development. It provides numerous examples to illustrate the complex, interlocking, and persistent nature of real world rules and norms.

"The essential role institutions play in understanding economic development has long been recognised and has been closely studied across the social sciences but some of the most high profile work has been done by economists many of whom are included in this collection covering a wide range of topics including the relationship between institutions and growth, educational systems, the role of the media and the intersection between traditional systems of patronage and political institutions. Each chapter covers the frontier research in its area and points to new areas of research and is the product of extensive workshopping and editing. The editors have also written an excellent introduction which brings together the key themes of the handbook. The list of contributors is stellar (Steven Durlauf, Throsten Beck, Bob Allen,and includes a diverse mix of Western and non Western, male and female scholars)"

Examines the concepts that have powerfully influenced development policy and more broadly looks at the role of ideas in international development institutions and how they have affected current development discourse.

'Bilin Neyapti provides a framework for understanding some of the most important issues confronting the world's economy today. Viewing the government as a social planner charged with the task of delivering sustainable development as a public good, she examines features of global markets such as central bank independence, inflation targeting, monetary unions, and currency boards, in each case evaluating the capacity of the relevant institutions to deliver efficiency, equality, and stability over the long term. Neyapti's broad-ranging and ambitious book should be of value to anyone interested in the development and improvement of the institutions undergirding the world's financial system.' Geoffrey P. Miller, New York University Law School, US 'Poor nations have learned the hard way that there is no greater threat to their economic development than macroeconomic crises. Avoiding macro instability in turn depends on good monetary and fiscal institutions. This book by Bilin Neyapti part textbook, part treatise is a terrific synthesis of the relevant literature and an excellent addition to it.' Dani Rodrik, Harvard University, US The fading explanatory power of earlier development theories in providing a satisfactory account of diverse developmental experiences has necessitated a new framework to understand economic development. Bilin Neyapti presents this new framework, known as New Development Economics (NDE), which combines new institutional economics with collective action theory to explain the dynamic interaction between institutions and economic development. Besides reviewing earlier development theories and the fundamental building blocks of NDE, the author uses the NDE framework to present theoretical underpinnings and panel evidence on the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary institutions. The book incorporates the essential elements of institutional theory and highlights the issues pertaining to the measurement of institutional characteristics and the empirical analyses involving such measurement. It provides the theoretical framework of and empirical evidence on fiscal institutions, covering budgetary rules and procedures as well as fiscal decentralization, and reviews the theoretical framework for monetary institutions such as central bank independence, currency boards, monetary unions and inflation targeting in addition to providing empirical evidence on their effectiveness. The role of bank regulation and supervision is also investigated. This path-breaking and original book will prove a fascinating read for a wide-ranging audience including academics, think tanks, international development agencies and policymakers within the fields of development, economics, heterodox economics and money, banking and finance.

This book provides a timely and accessible introduction to the foundational ideas associated with the human development school of thought. It examines its conceptual evolution during the post-colonial era, and discusses how various institutions of the UN system have tried to engage with this issue, both in terms of intellectual and technical advance, and operationally. Showing that human development has had a profound impact on shaping the policy agenda and programming priorities of global institutions, it argues that human development has helped to preserve the continued vitality of major multilateral development programs, funds, and agencies. It also details how human development faces new risks and threats, caused by political, economic, social, and environmental forces which are highlighted in a series of engaging case studies on trade, water, energy, the environment, democracy, human rights, and peacebuilding. The book also makes the case for why human development remains relevant in an increasingly globalized world, while asking whether global institutions will be able to sustain political and moral support from their member states and powerful non-state actors. It argues that fresh new perspectives on human development are now urgently needed to fill critical gaps across borders and entire regions. A positive, forward-looking agenda for the future of global governance would have to engage with new issues such as the Sustainable Development Goals, energy transitions, resource scarcity, and expansion of democratic governance within and between nations. Redefining the overall nature and specific characteristics of what constitutes human progress in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world, this book serves as a primer for scholars and graduate students of international relations and development. It is also relevant to scholars of economics, political science, history, sociology, and women’s studies.

An analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies is developed in this analysis of economic structures.

In order for economic specialization to develop, it is important that well-defined property rights are established and that suspicion and fear of fraud do not pervade transactions. Such conditions cannot be created ex abrubto, but must somehow evolve. What needs to develop is not only suitable practices and rules themselves, but also the public agencies and moral environment without which generalized trust is difficult to establish. The cultural endowment of societies as they have developed over their particular histories is bound to play a major role in this regard, and the matter of cultual endowment is one of the central themes of this book. On the other hand, division of labour does not only require well-enforced property rights and trust in economic dealings. It is also critically conditioned by the thickness of economic space, itself dependent on population density. This provides the second major theme of the volume: market development, including the development of private property rights is not possible, or will remain very incomplete, if populations are thinly spread over large areas of land. The book makes special reference to sub-Saharan Africa.

'Development' is what most people see as progress in the places where they live and in the ways they live. It has to do with public services, the ways to complain when these are not delivered properly, and the spaces to change power structures. It is related to the economy, the opportunities to access a secure job, a sustainable livelihood and increased welfare while caring for the planet and others. It is also linked to the institutions that allow people to live life well, using resources ethically and doing business responsibly in relation to other communities and future generations. This edited collection examines the interconnections between local governance, economic development and institutions, by focusing on what initiatives work and under what conditions they do so. Based on a variety of theories and empirical data, it presents evidence from current experiences around the world, revealed by researchers across different continents and several generations.

Presents the contributions that early development theory can make to growth economics in answering why some countries are richer than others and why some economies grow faster than others.

New Institutional Economics (NIE) has skyrocketed in scope and influence over the last three decades. This first Handbook of NIE provides a unique and timely overview of recent developments and broad orientations. Contributions analyse the domain and perspectives of NIE; sections on legal institutions, political institutions, transaction cost economics, governance, contracting, institutional change, and more capture NIE's interdisciplinary nature. This Handbook will be of interest to economists, political scientists, legal scholars, management specialists, sociologists, and others wishing to learn more about this important subject and gain insight into progress made by institutionalists from other disciplines. This compendium of analyses by some of the foremost NIE specialists, including Ronald Coase, Douglass North, Elinor Ostrom, and Oliver Williamson, gives students and new researchers an introduction to the topic and offers established scholars a reference book for their research.