Assessment on the “institutional economics” of corruption. Business and development in Romania, between formal and informal practices

This paper intends to draw the attention on the very subtle consequences of the corruption in the operational field, the deviation from the institutional arrangement in use. We will not insist for example on the subject according to which “the public domain”, as expression of the “joint property”, but also of the “tragedy of the commons” may be considered in a meta-institutional sense as corrupt. Anyhow, many enough differences of operational corruption require the use of institutional compared opinions about “corruption on a background of corrupt institutions” vs. „corruption on a background of healthy institutions”. The first part of the study will present briefly an institutional perspective a priori the corruption and its impact on the economic climate, drawing the attention on the distortions this one causes to the durability of the overall economic performance. The second part will present a synopsis of the “tense relationship” existing in Romania between the actually productive business environment and the legal, political and administrative environment which tolerates / temps perverse practices, either for the eviction or capture of the relevant political decision, underlining the relationship between the phenomenon of corruption and the economic performance in our country.