Institutions and Economic Development: Markets, Ideas, and Bottom-up Change

This book is a survey of the field of development studies from a political economy perspective. It first reviews the academic literature on development and highlights the fundamental importance of institutions and social values, over and above other alternative theories, as determinants in long-run development. In this context, the book draws from the works of Nobel Laureates Douglass North, F.A. Hayek and Elinor Ostrom, and argues that the ingredients of property rights, the rule of law, and market freedoms are essential in generating socio-economic progress.    

Successful reforms however are not simply a function of constructing formal institutions, but must cohere with the social values, norms, and cultural commitments of local communities. It is in this spirit that the book theorises on the oft-neglected role that political entrepreneurs play in driving endogenous institutional change. Specifically, this book integrates the theoretical discussion on market-driven development with a range of case studies from around the world, featuring the bottom-up efforts of local change agents to pursue institutional reforms and changes in social opinion. 

Bryan Cheang is the Assistant Director and Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society (CSGS) at King’s College London, where he obtained his PhD in Political Economy. His research interests include varieties of capitalism, the governance of East Asian societies, industrial policy, and the importance of value pluralism in the management of cultural particularism. He is also the author of Economic Liberalism and the Developmental State: Comparing Hong Kong and Singapore's Post-War Development, recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. 

Tom G. Palmer is executive vice president for international programs at Atlas Network where he holds the George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty. He is also a senior fellow at Cato Institute. He has travelled extensively to work with NGOs promoting liberal democracy and locally-led economic development. He has also published in journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Foreign Policy, Ethics, Critical Review, Global Policy, Eurasia Review, and Constitutional Political Economy. He is the author of numerous books, including (with Matt Warner) Development with Dignity (2022), and (with William A. Galston) Truth and Governance: Religious and Secular Views (2021).