Informal Institutions, Institutional Change, and Gender Equality

The Normative Foundations of Institutions and Institutional Change

This paper presents a framework for the integration of values (internalized norms) in a positive analysis of institutions and institutional change. Informal, norm-based institutions and formal – legal, economic, and political – institutions are co-determined as an equilibrium in the relations among economic and political actors. The paper discusses various ways that formal institutions influenc...

Informal Institutions and Property Rights

In recent years, the call for strong and clear property rights has grown in law and development circles. In the landmark book The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, de Soto put forth the claim that “strong and clear” property rights, formalized rather than informal, are necessary for economic efficiency and for the protection of the poor, who occu...

Finance and Social Responsibility in the Informal Economy: Institutional Voids, Globalization and Microfinance Institutions

We examine the heterogeneous effects of globalization on the interest rate setting by microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world. We consider MFIs as a mechanism to overcome the institutional void of credit for small entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies. Using a large global panel of MFIs from 119 countries, we find that social globalization that embraces egalitarian instit...

Gender Equality and Democracy

Although democratic institutions existed long before gender equality, at this point in history, growing emphasis on gender equality is a central component of the process of democratization. Support for gender equality is not just a consequence of democratization. It is part of a broad cultural change that is transforming industrialized societies and bringing growing mass demands for increasingl...

The Institutional Dynamics of Regulation in the EU : Formal and Informal Institutions in Supranational Governance