Both formal and informal institutions are usually perceived as constraints that structure and limit human behavior. This is understandable when we use them as an addition to neoclassical economics and as an attempt to overcome its deficiencies. Yet institutions also enable behavior which would...

This paper analyzes the dynamic interaction between norms - internalized restraints on opportunistic behaviour - and institutions - restraints on such behaviour deriving from external enforcement. When individuals following a norm suffer pecuniary losses to doing so, the norm is eroded....

This study presents evidence about relations between national cultural dimensions, socioeconomic development and governance quality. Relations between Hofstede's dimensions, Schwartz cultural values, Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and UNPD Human Development Index (HDI) were analysed by...

Government regulation of firms is associated with more negative externalities and unofficial activity across countries. I argue that this correlation mainly reflects causality going from concerns about market failures to demand for government intervention. Using trust in others as a proxy for...

We draw a distinction between the social integration and economic assimilation of migrants, and study an interaction between the two. We define social integration as blending into the host country’s society, and economic assimilation as acquisition of human capital that is specific to the host...

This chapter focuses on neighborhood effects in housing markets. Households in effect choose neighborhood effects, or more generally social interactions, via their location decisions, which renders them endogenous. Across several classes of models that it examines, it emphasizes how we may...

This chapter brings together some of the recent empirical and experimental evidence regarding preferences for social status. While briefly reviewing evidence from different literatures that is consistent with the existence of preferences for status, we pay special attention to experimental work...

An attempt is made for critical assessment of a fundamental category of the neoclassical economics by means of the contemporary institutional and evolutionary analysis. The concept of the scarcity of the economic goods is critically analysed within evolutionary-biological, social and specific...

As demonstrated in a recent laboratory experiment (see Sebald & Walzl, 2014), individuals tend to sanction others who subjectively evaluate their performance whenever this assessment falls short of the individuals’ self-evaluation. Interestingly, this is the case even if the individuals’...

Dynamic defaults for recurring purchases determine what happens to consumers enrolled in a product or service who take no action at a decision point. Consumers may face automatic renewal, automatic switching, or non-purchase defaults. Privately optimal dynamic defaults depend on the...