1st Edition

Varieties of Capitalism in History, Transition and Emergence New Perspectives on Institutional Development

By Martha Prevezer Copyright 2017
    294 Pages
    by Routledge

    294 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Economics tends to teach that developed countries have good institutions while developing countries do not, and that this is the factor that constrains the latter's growth. However, the picture is far messier than this explanation suggests.



    Building on the varieties of capitalism framework, this book brings together the tools of institutional economics with historical analyses of institutional evolution of different kinds of property rights and legal systems, protected by different kinds of state, giving rise to distinct corporate governance structures. It constructs institutional development histories across leading liberal capitalisms in Britain and the United States, compared with continental capitalisms in France and Germany, and contemporary transitional capitalisms in China and Tanzania. This volume is innovative in combining both historical and economic insights, and in combining developed country with developing country institutional emergence, dispelling the prevailing sense of complacency about the inevitability of the path of institutional development for the developed areas of the world and the paths that developing countries are likely to follow.



    This volume will be of great importance to those who study international economics, development economics and international business.

    1. Introduction





    PART I



    2. Primary institutions: Property rights, legal systems and the state - theories and concepts



    3. Meso-institutions





    PART II





    4. How did Britain’s ‘good institutions' evolve, and how good were they?





    5. Continental variety of capitalism: France and Germany compared with Britain





    6. The United States compared with Britain





    PART III





    7. Institutions debate for development: Theories, concepts and institutional development in Tanzania





    8. China in its institutional transition to capitalism





    9. Conclusions

    Biography

    Martha Prevezer is Senior Lecturer at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, UK. She has worked in various policy arenas, at the Bank of England, the National Economic Development Office (NEDO) and London Business School.