ADVANCED INTRODUCTION TO NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS
MARY SHIRLEY AND CLAUDE MENARD
COMMENTS BY PHILIP KEEFER
APRIL 14, 2022

View the webinar here.
(Also accessible here on YouTube.)

Why are some countries rich and some countries poor? Why are some activities organized as firms, others as markets, and others as a hybrid of the two? When are shared resources overexploited? Mary Shirley and Claude Menard discuss their recently published book, Advanced Introduction to New Institutional Economics, and explain how it explores NIE's answers to these and many other fundamental questions. The book provides a comprehensive guide to NIE's main branches, focusing on the governance of transactions and organization, identified with Oliver Williamson; the institutional environment, identified with Douglass North; and the role of communal institutions and collective action, identified with Elinor Ostrom. It explores how NIE has transformed perspectives on collective action, state and legal institutions, public policy and regulation, and economic growth. Following the authors' initial overview, Philip Keefer offers comments and queries for further examination. Questions to the speakers from the audience follow.

Full citation: Claude Menard and Mary M. Shirley, Advanced Introduction to New Institutional Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022. Learn more here.

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  Mary Shirley

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  Claude Menard

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  Philip Keefer

About the Speakers

Mary Shirley is President of the Ronald Coase Institute. She served earlier in the World Bank in several roles, including that of Research Manager on Competition Policy, Regulation, Finance, Public Sector Management and Private Sector Development. She is the author of numerous scholarly books and aricles on institutional issues in economic development. She has worked extensively in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Claude Menard is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Université de Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne). His main field of research has been and remains the economics of organizations and institutions. He has become increasingly involved in the economics of infrastructures, with special emphasis on the water sector, the analysis of internal properties of organizations, inter-firm agreements (hybrid arrangements such as joint ventures and strategic alliances), and the interaction between institutional reforms and organizational change.

Philip Keefer is Principal Economic Advisor of the Institutions and Development Department at the Inter-American Development Bank and Vice President of the Ronald Coase Institute. His research focuses on the determinants of political incentives to pursue economic development. He has investigated the impact of insecure property rights on growth; the effects of political credibility on policy; the sources of political credibility in democracies and autocracies; and the influence of political parties on conflict, political budget cycles, and public sector reform.