Summary of JOIE article by Kazuhiro S. Taniguchi, Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University, Tokyo. The full article is available on the JOIE website. This paper examines the core features of Masahiko Aoki’s Comparative Institutional Analysis (CIA) by tracing its methodological foundations and conceptualization of institutions within his intellectual trajectory. Aoki (1938–2015) dedicated his career…
Category: Article Summary
The complementarity between automation and flexible labor contracts
Summary of JOIE article by Silvio Traverso (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy), Massimiliano Vatiero (University of Trento, Italy, and Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland) and Enrico Zaninotto (University of Trento, and FBK-IRVAPP-Trento, Italy). The full article is available on the JOIE website. Since the 2000s, numerous European countries have implemented market-oriented reforms aimed at increasing external…
Transactions and Legal Institutionalism: Part II
Summary of JOIE article (24 April 2025) by Geoffrey M. Hodgson International Management, Loughborough University London, London, UK. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Contracts, money, and applications Part I of this article reviews major differences in definitions by six leading authors of the transaction concept (Hodgson, 2025). Part II develops toward a…
Transactions and Legal Institutionalism: Part I
Summary of JOIE article (22 April 2025) by Geoffrey M. Hodgson International Management, Loughborough University London, London, UK. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Prominent scholars have complained of confusion in the literature over what transactions are, and how their costs are measured. This two-part article explores this topic and suggests an alternative…
Toward polycentric federalism: Assessing federal institutional design in multiethnic African states
Summary of JOIE Article by Kaleb Demerew West Texas A&M University, USA, Samson Faboye, University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Sampson Edodi, University of Abuja, Nigeria. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Federalism has long been proposed as a governance solution for multiethnic African states struggling with identity-based conflict. Yet, despite constitutional…
Inclusive national innovation systems: rethinking institutions in the light of inclusion imperatives
Summary of JOIE article (25 February 2025) by Vanessa Casadella and Sofiane Tahi, LEFMI Lab., Picardie Jules Verne University, Amiens, France. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Since the 1990s, national innovation systems (NIS) have been the focus of a large body of literature highlighting the institutional performance of economies and the…
Formal and Informal Institutions: Some Problems of Meaning, Impact, and Interaction’ – A Summary
Summary of JOIE article (10 February 2025) by Geoffrey M. Hodgson International Management, Loughborough University London, London, UK. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Institutional research distinguishes between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ institutions. Largely through the work of Douglass North, this terminology took off in the 1990s. North often associated ‘formal institutions’ with rules…
Walter Lippmann: an institutionalist for our times?
Summary of JOIE article (15 November 2024) by Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap and Paul Lewis, Department of Political Economy, King’s College, London. The full article is available on the JOIE website. Walter Lippmann bestrode the 20th century. He was an award winning journalist who had the ear of every President from Woodrow Wilson to LBJ. He wrote…
The Role of Political Institutions in the Economic Convergence Process
Summary of JOIE article ( 19 September 2024) by Laura Lopez Gomez, Faculty of Tourism and International Relations, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain The full article is available on the JOIE website. Imagine the Eurozone as a grand marathon where each runner starts at different times and from various points, yet the ultimate goal is for everyone…
Environmental enforcement, property rights, and violence: evidence from the Brazilian Amazon
Summary of JOIE article ( 27 August 2024) by Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira, Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn and Bruno Varella Miranda, Insper Institute of Education and Research, São Paulo, Brazil. The full article is available on the JOIE website. When you think of Brazil, vibrant festivals and stunning landscapes often come…