Prague Economic Papers 2020, 29(6):672-687 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.749

Do Institutions Influence Economic Growth?

Klára Čermákováa, Pavel Procházkaa, Lucie Kurekováa, Jiří Rotschedla
a Prague University of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic

Economic growth has been the subject of much focus throughout the history of economic thought as it has profound economic, social and political consequences. The sources of economic cycles are surrounded by intense and controversial scientific dispute. In our article, we want to contribute to the institutional economics debate by analysing selected institutional factors and testing their influence on economic growth. On a 2012-2018 dataset, we prove that soft factors such as property rights, freedom of corruption, level of freedom on different markets and other components of the Index of Economic Freedom and legal framework explain the differences in GDP per capita dynamics across countries. We present new evidence on how institutional factors determine economic growth. Unlike previously conducted studies, we use panel data and a set of general control variables in an attempt to respect causal inference. Moreover, we show that the mainstream economic conviction - more economic freedom leads to higher economic growth - fails in some cases, and regulation does not always hamper economic growth.

Keywords: Institutions, institutional economics, economic growth, Index of Economic Freedom, soft factors of economic growth
JEL classification: E02, E17, E69

Received: April 2, 2019; Revised: December 16, 2019; Accepted: February 13, 2020; Prepublished online: June 24, 2020; Published: November 27, 2020  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Čermáková, K., Procházka, P., Kureková, L., & Rotschedl, J. (2020). Do Institutions Influence Economic Growth? Prague Economic Papers29(6), 672-687. doi: 10.18267/j.pep.749
Download citation

References

  1. Barro, R. J., Sala-i-Martin, X. (2003). Economic Growth. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02553-9.
  2. Baumol, W. J., Litan, R. E., Schramm, C. J. (2007). Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10941-2. Go to original source...
  3. Blaug, M. (1997). Economic Theory in Retrospect. 5th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521577012. Go to original source...
  4. Cerdeiro, D. A., Komaromi, A. (2019). Financial Openness and Capital Inflows to Emerging Markets: In Search of Robust Evidence. International Monetary Fund: Strategy, Policy and Review Department and Institute for Capacity Development.. Working Paper No. 19/194, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513509839.001 Go to original source...
  5. Demsetz, H. (2008). From Economic Man to Economic System: Essays on Human Behavior and the Institutions of Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50997-8. Go to original source...
  6. Drury, A. C., Krieckhaus, J., Lusztig, M. (2016). Corruption, Democracy, and Economic Growth. International Political Science Review, 27(2), 121-136, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512106061423 Go to original source...
  7. Ehrlich, I., Lui, F. T. (1999). Bureaucratic Corruption and Endogenous Economic Growth. Journal of Political Economy, 107(6), 270-293, https://doi.org/10.1086/250111 Go to original source...
  8. Feulner, E. J. (2013). The Rule of Law, in Miller, T., ed., 2013 Index of Economic Freedom. New York: Wall Street Journal, pp. 35-40. Available at: https://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2013/book/index_2013.pdf
  9. Gómez-Puig, M., Sosvilla-Rivero, S. (2018). Public Debt and Economic Growth: Further Evidence for the Euro Area. Acta Oeconomica, 68(2), 209-229, https://doi.org/10.1556/032.2018.68.2.2 Go to original source...
  10. Grier, R. M. (1999). Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth. Public Choice, 98(3/4), 317-335, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018322908007 Go to original source...
  11. Grossman, G., Helpman, E. (1994). Foreign Investment with Endogenous Protection. National Bureau of Economic Research. Cambridge Working Paper No. 4876, https://doi.org/10.3386/w4876 Go to original source...
  12. Hall, R. E., Jones, C. I. (1999). Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(1), 83-116, https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399555954 Go to original source...
  13. Hansson, G. (2009). What Determines Rule of Law? An Empirical Investigation of Rival Models. Kyklos, 62(3), 371-393, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2009.00441.x Go to original source...
  14. Hejduková, P. (2015). The Trends of Globalization in the Health Care Markets. Innovation Management and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth, VOLS I - VI, 2015. Norristown: Int Business Information Management Assoc-IBIMA, pp. 3197-3208. ISBN 978-0-9860419-5-2.
  15. Hejduková, P., Kureková, L. (2016). National Health Systems' Performance: Evaluation WHO Indicators. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, 240-248, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.031 Go to original source...
  16. Igan, D., Tressel, T., Mishra, P. (2009). A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis. International Monetary Fund.. Washington, DC Working Paper No. 09/287, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451874327.001 Go to original source...
  17. Jalilian, H., Kirkpatrick, C., Parker, D. (2006). The Impact of Regulation on Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Cross-country Analysis. Manchester: Centre on Regulation and Competition. Go to original source...
  18. Joireman, S. F. (2004). Colonization and the Rule of Law: Comparing the Effectiveness of Common Law and Civil Law Countries. Constitutional Political Economy, 15(4), 315-338, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-004-7766-7 Go to original source...
  19. Mauro, P. (1995). Corruption and Growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(3), 681-712, https://doi.org/10.2307/2946696 Go to original source...
  20. McKinsey Global Institute (1996). Capital Productivity. Washington, D.C.: McKinsey Global Institute, 326 p.
  21. Mitchell, M. (2013). Economic Freedom and Economic Privilege. Washington D.C.: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company.
  22. North, D. C. (1991). Institutions. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(1), 97-112, https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97 Go to original source...
  23. Ostrom, E. (2005). Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12207-6.
  24. Parente, S. L. (2008). Narrowing the Economic Gap in the 21st Century, in Kim, R. H., Fulner, E. J., O'Grady, M. A., eds., 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. Washington, D. C.: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company.
  25. Procházka, P., Čermáková, K. (2015). Influence of Selected Institutional Factors on the Economic Growth: Case Open Markets. Procedia Economics and Finance, 30, 702-709, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(15)01319-2 Go to original source...
  26. Ramsey, F. P. (1928). A Mathematical Theory of Saving. The Economic Journal, 38(152), 543-559, https://doi.org/10.2307/2224098 Go to original source...
  27. Romer, P. M. (1990). Endogenous Technological Change. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5, Part 2), 71-102, https://doi.org/10.1086/261725 Go to original source...
  28. Schramm, C. J. (2008). Economic Fluidity: A Crucial Dimension of Economic Freedom, in Kim, R. H., Fulner, E. J., O'Grady, M. A., eds., 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. Washington, D. C.: The Heritage Foundation and Dow Jones & Company.
  29. Solow, R. M. (1956). A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70(1), 65-94, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884513 Go to original source...
  30. Son, H. (2016). Trust, Economic Growth and Importance of the Institution. International Journal of Economic Sciences, 5(4), 32-50, https://doi.org/10.20472/ES.2016.5.4.003 Go to original source...
  31. Soto, H. de. (1989). The Other Path: the Invisible Revolution in the Third World. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0060160203.
  32. The CIA (2019). The World Factbook 2018. [Online] [Retrieved 2019-11-8] Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/401.html
  33. The Heritage Foundation (2013-2019). Index of Economic Freedom. Washington: The Heritage Foundation.
  34. The World Bank (2017). World Wide Governance Indicators. [Online] [Retrieved 2017-08-16] Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-governance-indicators
  35. Transparency International (2016). Corruption Perceptions Index 2016. [Online] [Retrieved 2017-08-16] Available at: https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016
  36. Xu, G. (2011). The Role of Law in Economic Growth: a Literature Review. Journal of Economic Surveys, 25(5), 833-871, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.2011.00691.x Go to original source...
  37. Zielenkiewicz, M. (2013). Globalisation, European Integration and Institutional Changes. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 145-169.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.