On the basis of the "challenge" North [1997 (1977)] identified in the works of Polanyi, we propose to outline the originality of North's institutionalism, especially in comparison with "new institutionalism" in economics as well as in sociology. Far from endorsing the dichotomy between market...

This paper analyses the impact of funding source of the bailout on the softness of the regional budget constraint. We show that the funding source of the bailout has a considerable impact both on the credibility of the federal government's commitment and on the regional opportunistic behaviour....

This paper analyses the impact of both the nature of regional public spending and the federal government’s fiscal tools on the softness of the regional budget constraint and the regional provision of public good. We show that i) whatever the nature of regional public spending, the regional...

This paper studies the existence of a fiscal Nash equilibrium in a multi-country model of trade where the relative prices are the channels of transmission of scal policies between countries. We stipulate the necessary conditions on goods, consumptions and trade that allow for the existence of a...

We introduce political economics into the soft budget constraint problem by asking if the timing of elections has the potential to harden budget constraints. Specifically, we ask under which circumstances the soft budget constraint problem is worse - with synchronized elections, i.e....