Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T03:48:58.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2004

AVNER GREIF  and
DAVID D. LAITIN
AVNER GREIF
Affiliation:
Stanford University
DAVID D. LAITIN
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper asks (a) why and how institutions change, (b) how an institution persists in a changing environment, and (c) how processes that it unleashes lead to its own demise. The paper shows that the game-theoretic notion of self-enforcing equilibrium and the historical institutionalist focus on process are both inadequate to answer these questions. Building on a game-theoretic foundation, but responding to the critique of it by historical institutionalists, the paper introduces the concepts of quasi-parameters and self reinforcement. With these concepts, and building on repeated game theory, a dynamic approach to institutions is offered, one that can account for endogenous change (and stability) of institutions. Contextual accounts of formal governing institutions in early modern Europe and the informal institution of cleavage structure in the contemporary world provide illustrations of the approach.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 4 , November 2004 , pp. 633 - 652
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allworth E. A. 1990. The Modern Uzbeks. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
Annali. 1190. Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e dei suoi Continuatori, 1099–1240, 1923–1929. 4 vols. Trans. Ceccardo Roccatagliata Ceccardi and Giovanni Monleone. Genoa: Municipio di Genova.
Aoki Masahiko. 2001. Comparative Institutional Analysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Aumann Robert J., and Adam Brandenburger. 1995. “Epistemic Conditions for Nash Equilibrium.” Econometrica 65 (5): 1161– 80.Google Scholar
Barro Robert. 1997. Determinants of Economic Growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bueno de Mesquita Bruce. 2000. “Popes, Kings, and Endogenous Institutions: The Concordat of Worms and the Origins of Sovereignty.” International Studies Review 2 (2): 93– 118.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita Bruce, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Calvert Randall L. 1995. “Rational Actors, Equilibrium, and Social Institutions.” In Explaining Social Institutions, ed. Jack Knight and Itai Sened. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 57– 93.
CDG. 1936, 1938. Codice Diplomatico della Repubblica di Genova dal MCLXIIII [sic] al MCLXXXX [sic]. Vols. I, II, ed. Cesare Imperiale di Sant'Angelo. Rome: Fonti per la Storia d'Italia.
Chandra Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collier David, and Ruth Collier. 1991. Shaping the Political Arena. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
David Paul. 1994. “Why Are Institutions the 'Carriers of History'?: Path-Dependence and the Evolution of Conventions, Organizations and Institutions.” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 5 (2): 205– 20.Google Scholar
de Negri Teoflio Ossian. 1986. Storia di Genova. Florence: G. Martello.
DiMaggio Paul J., and Walter W. Powell. 1991. “Introduction.” In The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, ed. Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Durkheim Emile. [1895] 1950. The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.
Easterly W., and R. Levine. 1997. “Africa's Growth Tragedy.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (November): 1203– 50.Google Scholar
Epstein Stephan. 1996. Genoa & the Genoese, 958–1528. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Ertman Thomas. 1997. Birth of the Leviathan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fearon James D., and David D. Laitin. 2000. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identities.” International Organization 54 (Autumn): 845– 77.Google Scholar
Fudenberg D., and D. Levin. 1998. The Theory of Learning in Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
González de Lara Yadira. 2004. “The State as an Enforcer in Early Venetian Trade: A Historical Institutional Analysis.” Memo. Department of Economic Analysis, University of Alicante.
Greif Avner. 1993. “Contract Enforceability and Economic Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders' Coalition.” American Economic Review 83 (3): 525– 48.Google Scholar
Greif Avner. 1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Indivi-dualist Societies.” Journal of Political Economy 102 (5): 912– 50.Google Scholar
Greif Avner. 1995. “Political Organizations, Social Structure, and Institutional Success: Reflections From Genoa and Venice during the Commercial Revolution.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 151 (4): 734– 40.Google Scholar
Greif Avner. 1997. “Microtheory and Recent Developments in the Study of Economic Institutions through Economic History.” In Advances in Economic Theory, ed. David M. Kreps and Kenneth F. Wallis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Vol. II.
Greif Avner. 1998. “Self-Enforcing Political Systems and Economic Growth: Late Medieval Genoa.” In Analytic Narratives, ed. Robert H. Bates, Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry R. Weingast. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Greif Avner. n.d. Institutions: Theory and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.
Greif Avner, Paul R. Milgrom, and Barry R. Weingast. 1994. “Coordination, Commitment and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild.” Journal of Political Economy 102 (4). (August) 745– 76.Google Scholar
Hall Peter A., and Rosemary C. R. Taylor. 1996. “Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms.” Political Studies 44 (5): 936– 57.Google Scholar
Hall Peter A., and Rosemary C. R. Taylor. 1998. “The Potential of Historical Institutionalism: A Response to Hay and Wincott.” Political Studies 46 (5): 958– 62.Google Scholar
Herlihy David. 1969. “Family Solidarity in Medieval Italian History.” In Economy Society, and Government in Medieval Italy, Essays in Memory of Robert L. Reynolds, ed. David Herlihy, R. S. Lopez, and V. Slessarev. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 173– 84.
Hughes Diane. 1978. “Urban Growth and Family Structure in Medieval Genoa.” In Towns in Societies, ed. Philip Abrams and E. A. Wrigley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ikenberry John. 1994. “History's Heavy Hand.” Presented at con-ference on The New Institutionalism, University of Maryland.
Kalai E., and E. Lehrer. 1993. “Rational Learning Leads to Nash Equilibrium.” Econometrica 61 (September): 1019– 45.Google Scholar
Kalai E., and E. Lehrer. 1995. “Subjective Games and Equilibria.” Games and Economic Behavior 8: 123– 63.Google Scholar
Kalyvas Stathis N. 1996. The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Katznelson Ira. 1997. “Structure and Configuration in Comparative Politics.” In Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture and Structure, ed. M. Lichbach and A. Zuckerman. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Krasner Steven. 1984. “Approaches to the State.” Comparative Politics 16 (January): 223– 46.Google Scholar
Laitin David D. 1986. Hegemony and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Laitin David D. 1998. Identity in Formation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Lane Frederic C. 1973. Venice: A Maritime Republic. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Levy J. 1999. Tocqueville's Revenge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lipset S. M., and Stein Rokkan. 1967. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction.” In Party Systems and Voter Alignments, ed. S. M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan. New York: Free Press.
Lopez Robert S. 1976. The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350. London: Cambridge University Press.
Marimon Ramon. 1997. Learning from Learning in Economics. In Advances in Economic Theory, Vol. I, ed. David M. Kreps and Kenneth F. Wallis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 278– 315.
Muthoo Abhinay, and Kenneth A. Shepsle. 2003. “Agenda-Setting Power in Organizations with Overlapping Generations of Players.” Typescript. Harvard University.
Moriguchi Chiaki. 1998. “Evolution of Employment Systems in the US and Japan: 1900–60. A Comparative Historical Analysis.” Manuscript. Stanford University.
North Douglass C. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norwich John Julius. [1977] 1989. A History of Venice. New York: Vintage Books.
Pierson Paul. 1994. Dismantling the Welfare State? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pierson Paul. 2000. “Increasing Returns, Path Dependency, and the Study of Politics.” American Political Science Review 94 (June): 251– 67.Google Scholar
Pierson Paul, and Theda Skocpol. 2002. “Historical Institutionalism in Contemporary Political Science.” In Political Science: State of the Discipline, ed. Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner. New York: W. W. Norton, 693– 721.
Raun Toivo. 1987. Estonia and the Estonians. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
Rubinstein Ariel. 1991. “Comments on the Interpretation of Game Theory.” Econometrica 59 (July): 909– 24.Google Scholar
Rubinstein Ariel. 1998. Modeling Bounded Rationality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schelling Thomas. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schotter Andrew. 1981. The Economic Theory of Social Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Simon Herbert. 1976. Administrative Behavior. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan.
Suberu Rotimi T. 2001. Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria. Washington, DC: USIP Press.
Suny Ronald G. 1993. Revenge of the Past. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Swidler Ann. 1986. “Culture in Action.” American Sociological Review 51 (April): 273– 86.Google Scholar
Tabacco Giovanni. 1989. The Struggle for Power in Medieval Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thelen Kathleen. 1999. “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 2: 369– 404.Google Scholar
Thompson E. P. 1963. The Making of the English Working Class. London: Victor Gollancz.
Ullmann-Margalit Edna. 1977. The Emergence of Norms. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Vitale V. 1955. Breviario della Storia di Genova, 2 vols. Genoa: Societa Ligure di Storia Patria.
Weingast Barry R. 1996. “Political Institutions: Rational Choice Perspectives.” In A New Handbook of Political Science, ed. Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Young H. Peyton. 1998. Individual Strategy and Social Structure. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.