This paper surveys alternative approaches to the emergence and evolution of institutions. The challenge is to develop frameworks capable of capturing both stability and change. We follow a “descaling” approach to show how founding assumptions about economics—namely, alternative assumptions...

The paper addresses the issue of rethinking the welfare state as a part of a broader national system of social protection (NSSP) and a mode of societal regulation. In order to overcome the theoretical limits of bottom-up comparative analysis of welfare states, one builds a structural model of...

What explains the varying responses by Thai governments to changes in the international economic environment over time. To answer this the paper emphasizes the link between the nature of the political structure/policymaking environment and the government’s reform capacity. Thailand’s...

Using cross–country and Peruvian data, I show that victims of misfortune, particularly crime victims, are much more likely than non–victims to bribe public officials. Misfortune increases victims’ demand for public services, raising bribery indirectly, and also increases victims’...

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies on the regional economic adjustments that followed NAFTA’s entry into force in Mexico. In the first study, the evolution and determinants of regional disparities in manufacturing labor productivity are analyzed for the 1988-2003 period. The...

This paper studies the reasons behind the export performance of different Mexican states from 1994 to 2002. Mexican exports are divided into two components: (1) foreign market potential; and (2) supply capacity. Results suggest that states that experience an increase in supply capacity are, in...

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the education system in Peru has known a considerable development. This suggests that in all probabilities opportunities for study should be on a more equal basis. In the present article, I set out to discover whether all social groups have really...

Public statistics face quite a challenge when it comes to measuring new dimensions of development (institutions, governance, and social and political participation). To take up this challenge, modules on Governance, Democracy and Multiple Dimensions of Poverty have been appended to household...