Institutions and Economic Performance in Transition Countries

Do institutions affect economic performance? While previous research is broadly consistent in reporting a positive effect of institutional improvements on economic outcomes, extensive heterogeneity exists in the empirical strategies used to explain these influences. This book contributes to the growing institutional literature by reporting a meta-regression investigation, which identifies the sources and consequences of such heterogeneity. It is useful for future researchers to learn how, and why, many studies overemphasize the "authentic" institutional effect in economics. This research is also focused on the European transition economies and sheds light on problems related to neglected dynamics, endogeneity, and timing effects through the use of dynamic panel estimation. The results suggest that changes in institutions have neither a contemporaneous or long-run influence on economic performance, though they do have a significant positive effect in the medium run. The final part of the book is focused on institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A novel part of this latter empirical analysis investigates the interaction between formal and informal institutions.