In developing countries, weak institutional quality can increase the probability of applying discretionary policies and can have a great impact on their double-digit inflation. Surico (2008) calculated inflation bias, but he considered just monetary policy and he did not pay attention to the institutions. Therefore, we design a model which considers the discretion in monetary and fiscal policie...

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 about individual rationality and the role of social efficiency— influence our understanding of the drivers...

We are grateful for the many scholars and medical practitioners who helped with our research. We thank the editor, Mauro Guillén, three anonymous reviewers who helped to substantially improve the paper, the participants of the EGOS 2007 Subtheme on Professions, the Boston College Research Workshop 2008, and the following people who provided helpful comments on prior drafts of our paper: Forrest...