Abstract

ARELLANO GAULT, David  and  LEPORE, Walter. Power, Path Dependence and New Institutional Economics: Limits and Restrictions of Contemporary Literature. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2009, vol.18, n.2, pp.253-305. ISSN 1405-1079.

This paper analyzes the relationship among institutions and economic growth, based on a literature review of the New Institutional Economics (NIE). We focus on those studies that emphasize property and contractual rights as the main explicative variables of economic growth. The principal hypothesis of this current of thought is that liberal (democratic) and market institutions are a prerequisite for encouraging investment, efficiency, innovation, employment and, consequently, economic growth. This document has two main purposes: 1) to identify the influence of specific groups in selecting and building up political an economic institutions in developing countries; 2) to show that influential international interest groups have a considerable impact on the pattern of economic growth in developing countries. The principal argument of this paper is that, while the NIE variables are relevant, the influence of power groups in the international arena is a decisive explanatory factor that the economic and institutional analysis has erroneously put aside. We attempt to incorporate these power relations into institutional analysis using the concept of path dependence. We conduct a panel data model (appendix 2) and our preliminary findings suggest that path dependence variables are as important as the variables traditionally set forth in the NIE literature.

Keywords : institutions; economic growth; power; path dependence.

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