文档介绍：The New Institutional Economics and Development Theory:
A Brief Critical Assessment
PRANAB BARDHAN
University of California, Berkeley
Summary. – In this paper we discuss strengths and weaknesses of transaction-cost and imperfect-information approaches to the economic theory of institutions, particularly with references to problems relevant to economic development.
ALTERNATIVE THEORLES
In recent years two strands of non –Walrasian economic literature have developed well-articulated endogenous theories of institutions, and they are both getting to be prominent in the new microeconomics of development One is the transaction cost school flowing out of the famous paper by Coase (1960), followed by the writings of Alchian, Demsetz, Williamson, North and others; the other school is associated with the theory of imperfect information as in the work of Akerlof, Stiglitz, Spence and others. Although there is some family resemblance between the two strands, there are important differences in their points of emphasis. But they both deny the validity of some of the principal –results of mainstream economics. For example, one of the main pillars of Walrasian neoclassical economics the separability of equity and efficiency---breaks down when transaction costs and efficiency; the terms and conditions of contracts in various transactions, which directly affect the efficiency of resource a