This book brings together conceptual and empirical analyses of the causes and consequences of changing business-government relations in China since the 1990s, against the backdrop of the country's increased integration with the global political economy. More specifically, it provides an...

1. The Concept of Power -- 2. Political Power -- 3. Economic Power -- 4. The Separation of Economic from Political Power -- 5. Power in Pre-Agricultural Societies -- 6. Power in Agrarian and Feudal Societies -- 7. Institutions That Support Commerce and Industry -- 8. Power in Commercial and...

A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical,...

This paper summarizes salient features of the existing thinking on fiscal and monetary policies in the Islamic economics literature. It outlines institutional framework for these policies from the Islamic economics perspective. The nature and role of government, in the light of the Shar ah...

A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical,...

Where legal systems and market forces enforce contracts inadequately, vertical integration can circumvent these transaction difficulties. But, such environments often also feature highly interventionist government, and even corruption. Vertical integration might then enhance returns to political...

This paper presents a theoretical argument focused on how social norms and formal institutions operate as cognitive coping mechanisms among groupings of boundedly rational actors who face fundamental uncertainty concerning their political and economic environments. Broadly speaking, informal and...