Informal Constraints Research Articles

Russia: Firm entry and survival barriers

Why are there so few new firms in Russia? This paper provides further insights into the specific Russian business landscape and how it impacts the low level of new firm entry. As this paper indicates, internationally comparative data do not provide many clues, since in terms of purely formal constraints Russia fares comparatively well. However, a deeper analysis uncovers the informal impediments associated with the lack of rule of law, inconsistent enforcement of regulations, regional autonomy and pervasive corruption. These informal constraints form impediments not only for new firm creation but also for firm survival and firm exit.

Persistence of High Maternal Mortality in Koppal District, Karnataka, India: Observed Service Delivery Constraints

Rural women with obstetric complications access many health providers in Koppal, the poorest district in the state of Karnataka, south India. Yet they die. Based on insights derived from case studies of women seeking emergency obstetric care and participant-observation of government health services, this article highlights service delivery constraints that underlie the persistence of high levels of maternal mortality in Koppal. Weak information systems, discontinuity in care, unsupported health workers, haphazard referral systems and distorted accountability mechanisms are identified as critical service delivery problems. For example, maternal deaths are under-reported and not reviewed, antenatal care and institutional delivery are not linked to post-partum or emergency obstetric care, and health workers use inappropriate injections but don’t treat anaemia or sepsis. Families waste valuable time and resources accessing many providers but fail to get effective care, and blame is laid on lower-level health workers and women for not accessing institutional delivery. Lastly, the role of administrators and politicians in ensuring functioning health services is obscured. While important supply and demand-side reforms are being implemented, these do not constructively engage with informal providers nor address systemic service delivery constraints. Critical managerial change is required, without which new budgetary allocations will be squandered with little impact on saving women’s lives.RésuméÀ Koppal, le district le plus pauvre de l’État de Karnataka en Inde méridionale, les femmes rurales présentant des complications obstétricales ont accès à de nombreux prestataires de soins. Pourtant, beaucoup d’entre elles succombent. Utilisant les données d’études sur des femmes ayant demandé des soins obstétricaux d’urgence et les observations des participants sur les services de santé gouvernementaux, cet article dégage les facteurs de la persistance de taux élevés de mortalité maternelle à Koppal; faiblesse des systèmes d’information, discontinuité des soins, soutien insuffisant aux agents de santé, manque de rigueur des systèmes d’orientation des patientes et mécanismes biaisés de responsabilité. Par exemple, les décès maternels sont sous-notifiés et ne sont pas étudiés, les soins prénatals et les accouchements en milieu institutionnel ne sont pas liés aux soins post-partum ou obstétricaux d’urgence, et les agents de santé utilisent des injections contre-indiquées, sans vraiment traiter l’anémie ou la septicémie. Les familles perdent des ressources et un temps précieux pour consulter de nombreux prestataires, mais n’obtiennent pas de soins efficaces; elles en rendent responsables les agents de santé du niveau inférieur et les femmes pour n’avoir pas accouché dans un établissement de soins. Enfin, le rôle des administrateurs et des politiciens pour garantir des services de santé efficaces est dissimulé. Des réformes importantes de l’offre et de la demande sont mises en oeuvre mais elles n’associent pas constructivement les prestataires informels, pas plus qu’elles ne s’attaquent aux obstacles systémiques. Un profond changement administratif est nécessaire, faute de quoi de nouvelles allocations budgétaires seront gaspillées, sans parvenir à sauver la vie des femmes.ResumenA pesar de tener acceso a numerosos prestadores de servicios de salud en Koppal, el distrito más pobre del estado de Karnataka, en la India meridional, muchas mujeres rurales con complicaciones obstétricas continúan muriendo. Basado en estudios de casos de mujeres que buscan cuidados obstétricos de emergencia y en la observación participante en servicios de salud gubernamentales, este artículo destaca las limitaciones de la prestación de servicios implícitas en la persistencia de los altos índices de mortalidad materna en Koppal, por ejemplo: sistemas de información débiles, discontinuidad de los cuidados, trabajadores de salud sin apoyo, sistemas de referencia al azar y mecanismos distorsionados de responsabilidad. Por ejemplo, las muertes maternas son subreportadas y no revisadas, la atención antenatal y el parto institucional no son vinculados con los cuidados obstétricos posparto o de emergencia, y los trabajadores de salud utilizan inyecciones indebidas pero no tratan la anemia o sepsis. Las familias desperdician tiempo y recursos valiosos cuando acceden a muchos prestadores de servicios sin obtener cuidados eficaces, y la culpa recae en los trabajadores de salud de nivel inferior y en las mujeres por no tener un parto institucional. Por último, no queda clara la función de los administradores y políticos en garantizar servicios de salud en buen estado de funcionamiento. A pesar de que se están implementando importantes reformas relacionadas con la oferta y demanda, éstas ni implican constructivamente a los prestadores de servicios extraoficiales ni tratan las limitaciones sistémicas de la prestación de servicios. Se necesita un cambio administrativo fundamental, sin el cual nuevas distribuciones presupuestales serían derrochadas con poco impacto en los esfuerzos por salvar la vida de las mujeres.

Formal and Informal Institutional Constraints and the Performance of Firms in Developing Economies: The Case of Egypt

The paper sets out to examine the effect of the interaction between the informal and formal institutional constraints on the investment performance of firms in Egypt. The paper endeavours to increase our understanding about the importance and the role of the institutional factors in business operations. The paper argues that the effect of the institutional factors on the performance of firms is contingent upon the quality and the level of compatibility between the formal and informal rules. The interaction between the formal and informal institutional frameworks determines the evolution of a system and how it works. The path of this evolution is sensitive to the quality of these two types of institutions. The main outcome of this study is that the performance of firms in developing countries is determined by a complex interaction of the formal and informal rules. Some theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Partially sighted persons and the public debt elephant

Recent data on the accumulation patterns of public debt across OECD countries suggests a synthesis is possible between the theoretical and empirical approaches to public debt and also between the traditional and more recent political economy explanations of public debt accumulation. The inductive approach of recent political economy explanations is combined with the intertemporal constraints highlighted in the Ricardian–Barro theory to present a reinterpretation of cross-country debt accumulations patterns. Like the elephant in the blind men and the elephant fable, the conclusion is glaringly obvious. Formal and informal budgetary constraints matter.

Between Prescription and Practices in Seoul Metropolitan City: Institutional Constraints and Relational Contracting

Public choice theories suggest contracting out as a cure-all for various weaknesses of government bureaucracy and its absence of competition. The transaction cost economics theory challenges these theories, arguing that competitive contracting is appropriate only for hard services like human waste collection while relational contracting is for soft services such as welfare facility management. After examining contracting practices of 25 district governments of Seoul Metropolitan Government, however, this study found that informal institutional constraints led district governments to adopt relational contracting for human waste collection and to adopt competitive contracting for welfare facility management.

An Institutional Perspective on Health Sector Reforms and the Process of Reframing Health Information Systems

Health sector reform, including structural and process changes such as the incorporation of feasible information and communication technologies, is a priority in many least developed countries. However, such changes have not been particularly effective, the reasons for which will be explored in this article. Particular attention will be paid to attempts to integrate information systems in HIV/AIDS program in Mozambique. The article draws on new institutional theory to argue that the focus of this program on formal rules (i.e., Sector Wide Approach policy and national plans), which deemphasize the informal constraints at the point of service delivery (i.e., priority given to health care over reporting), has resulted in limited change. Furthermore, the limited overlap between the formal and informal domains raises the need for enhancing incentives and enforcement as key mechanisms through which more effective change can be enabled in the future.

Inside boardrooms: Restoring corporate governance

Recent bold changes in corporate governance proceedings suggest that business and regulators are ahead of scientists in addressing the role of informal constraints. We argue that economics and management sciences alone are no longer sufficient to advance our understanding of how to make corporate boards effective. Our proposal for a multidisciplinary approach comes with an appeal for a radical rethink of current limits of existing empirical methodology.

Research of Interaction Computing Based on Pen Gesture in Conceptual Design

Natural interaction based on pen gesture is efficient for innovation in conceptual design. This paper presents a hierarchy concept model for pen gesture design based on the interactive informal constraint sketch and context-awareness. Furthermore, it discusses the constraint foundation and solution. Feature gesture as an instance of gesture applications in conceptual design is given. Compared with the traditional modeling mode, the feature gesture is convenient. Gesture-based interaction gives a natural way to record the brain streaming quickly. This

Why is Property Right Protection Lacking in China? An Institutional Explanation

China is one of the most important foreign investment markets in both volume and growth. However, property rights protection in China is extremely weak and expropriations by both public and private actions are rampant. How can the booming of foreign investment and the looting of property co-exist? Why is protecting property rights so difficult in China? This article shows that the different paces of institutional change between formal and informal constraints are the major cause behind the lack of property right protection in China. It discusses policy considerations for China to improve property right protection and raises two fundamental issues for multinational firms doing business in China.

Institutional Appraisal of Economic Reforms in Algeria

This Paper argues that the institutional framework is as much important as the economic factors in explaining the economic and investment outcomes in Algeria. Moreover, the paper discusses the failure of many informal institutions to follow the path of the formal institutions' change, which resulted in poor performance of the reform policies. The paper argues that the Algerian authorities have to put more efforts into changing informal constraints if the reform policies are to lead significantly enhanced economic performance.

Alternative Visions of Change in Douglass North’s New Institutionalism

The aim of this essay is to explore the implications of the concept of gradualism in Douglass C. North's recent works. Such a concept is mostly implied in his discourse, as a logical consequence (or premise) of his reasoning, but despite its strategic function it is rarely given theoretical treatment. In particular, the essay seeks to show that the gradualistic view of institutional change is not utilizable in many respects, although it performs an indisputable role as an explanatory category in a number of cases addressed by North. In my view, this conclusion arises from North's research itself. Consequently, the first section of this essay discusses the terms in which North deals with gradualism. The second section shows how the non-convergent times of transformation, of both formal and informal constraints, introduce the problem of conflict between these two basic kinds of norm. The third section deals with some problems arising from coexistence between competing or conflicting rules (both formal and informal). Within this framework, the role of contingencies emerges as influencing the path of institutional change, especially when the distance between formal and informal rules increasingly diminishes (fourth section). These various arguments induce reconsideration of North's notion of gradualism, and a sign of such revision seemingly emerges from a recent contribution by the author (written with Arthur D. Denzau) in which the dynamics of both institutions and shared mental models are treated in terms of punctuated equilibria theory, that is, in anti-gradualistic terms (fifth section). The accepted heritage of both Stephen J. Gould's and Thomas S. Kuhn's approaches evidently poses new problems, yet it opens a number of stimulating perspectives for interpretation of institutional change.

Valuation of wetlands in a landscape and institutional perspective

What is a wise use of nature? This perennial issue, always controversial due to conflicting human interests, has in the last decade tended to be clothed in the context of ‘sustainable development’. The rapid breakthrough of this concept in political and scientific spheres has brought to our attention the dependence of human survival and well-being upon ecosystem supports (e.g. Baskin, 1997; Costanza et al., 1997; Daily, 1997), as well as the susceptibility of ecosystems to human influences. How can such a political and scientific attention to ecosystems be translated to good public policy? One necessary prerequisite is likely to be the adoption of a landscape perspective. Such a perspective implies studies of the biological and physical interactions among a mosaic of ecosystems in heterogeneous land areas that together comprise landscapes. It is worth emphasising, however, that human presence and man-made social, economic and physical structures are equally ‘natural’ landscape elements, continually interacting with ecosystems. The fact that humans and nature are inseparable, and the apparently ever-increasing human influence on her biological and physical environments, make an analysis of the linkages between ecosystems and humans an indispensable part of a landscape perspective. Institutional design in the context of interaction between society and nature has indeed been subject to several recent studies, for example, Ostrom (1990), Bromley (1991), Hanna et al. (1996), and Berkes and Folke (1998). Institutions include social norms, codes and other informal constraints for human behaviour as well as formal ones such as constitutions and laws. Their design is one key to understanding human preferences and behaviour in relation to nature. The study of institutions is thus an integral part of a landscape perspective. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-8-6739540; fax: +46-8152464. E-mail address: tore@beijer.kva.se (T. Soderqvist).

BUYING PATTERNS FOR STAPLE FOODS AMONGST RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN KWAZULU-NATAL INFORMAL CONSTRAINTS PERSPECTIVE IN IMPENDLE AND SWAYIMANA

In order to better understand marketing problems faced by emerging small-scale farmers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), this paper assess informal constraints through purchasing patterns for staple foodstuffs amongst rural households sampled in the districts of Hlanganani (Impendle) and Umvoti (Swayimana). An earlier survey showed that most rural households in KruaZulu-Natal purchased staple foodstuffs in large towns. This study uses New Institutional Economics, and especially the transaction cost model, to examine household decisions relating to sources of purchased food. In both study areas, the results show that the vast majority of respondents engage in both personal and impersonal transactions, and that between 30 and 40 per cent of respondents still purchase staple foodstuffs from neighbours. Most sample households purchased food in towns where they operated a formal bank account. Outlets without banking facilities and supermarkets were avoided. These findings contradict the importance attached by some households in these areas to the role of informal constraints in rural household purchasing decisions.

Sanctioning Policy in Israel — An Historical Overview

The sanctioning policy of a given society may be analysed on a number of levels. It may focus on the actions of the legislative body in the adoption of statutes, or on the legislative and administrative measures taken by the ministers and policy-makers who derive their formal powers from such statutes. Alternatively it may focus on the decisions of the courts, either by examining these on a statistical level or by analysing the content (the rhetoric as well as the substance) of their decisions. The present article will focus primarily upon the legislative policies of the Knesset in the matter of sanctions since the establishment of the state.Before beginning the analysis of legislative policy in this area, two preliminary observations may be made regarding the informal constraints influencing the formulation of legislative policy in relation to the penal system during the formative years of the state.

Formal and informal constraints in transition to the market: Costs of neoclassical utility maximisation

Formal and informal constraints in transition to the market: Costs of neoclassical utility maximisation

International Variation in the Business-Government Interface: Institutional and Organizational Considerations

This article combines concepts from institutional analysis in modern political economy and from organizational behavior better to understand variation in the business-government interface among major industrialized democracies. We contend that differences in business-government relations across countries can be better understood by examining the institutions through which business and government interact with particular attention to formal constraints such as rules that individuals devise and informal constraints—such as culture and norms of behavior. We also submit that attributes of the institutions involved in the interaction of business and government can be better understood by examining how individuals are attracted to, selected by, and choose to remain as members of institutions. From this theoretical framework we have developed some implications for the types of economic policies that are likely to be adopted in different countries and the tactics and strategies that businesses may use to represen...

Institutions

Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). Throughout history, institutions have been devised by human beings to create order and reduce uncertainty in exchange. Together with the standard constraints of economics they define the choice set and therefore determine transaction and production costs and hence the profitability and feasibility of engaging in economic activity. They evolve incrementally, connecting the past with the present and the future; history in consequence is largely a story of institutional evolution in which the historical performance of economies can only be understood as a part of a sequential story. Institutions provide the incentive structure of an economy; as that structure evolves, it shapes the direction of economic change towards growth, stagnation, or decline. In this essay, I intend to elaborate on the role of institutions in the performance of economies and illustrate my analysis from economic history.

Geographical implications of restricting foreign medical immigration: A New Zealand case study, 1976–1987

Foreign medical graduates (FMGs) have come to play an important role in providing primary care, especially in the more rural and poorer urban parts of New Zealand, locations which locally trained doctors have traditionally found unattractive. Since 1980, new immigration policies have enhanced this pattern, but are not the main cause of it. Rather, it is suggested that a set of informal constraints, arising from increased competition among greater numbers of GPs has caused a diffusion of foreign doctors into areas of need, although their presence in such areas, is for the most part, only temporary. Nevertheless, it is suggested that the success of market based policies in terms of improving the distribution of GPs is, to a large extent, dependent upon the presence of FMGs in the labour pool. Seen in this light, recent changes in immigration policy, which have reduced the inflow of FMGs into New Zealand, may well have been premature.

Competence and Culture in the Police

Assessments of the achievement of competence in organisations often obscure the relationship between external or formal criteria of competence and those of members. Efforts to reform police practice may founder on the lack of fit between the terms in which outsiders and members construe `competent' practice. In order to approach this matter it is initially necessary to specify the terms in which members attribute competence to practice at incidents, and to examine the formal and informal constraints and goals which influence their action. This article pursues the issue in the context of ethnographic research into policing in American and British urban settings.

Rethinking the Alcohol Problem: A Natural Processes Model

A multivariate natural processes model for thinking about alcohol use and abuse is offered as an alternative to the traditional static-entity, single-cause way of thinking that historically generated a series of formal institutional attacks on different supposed causes of alcohol abuse, but which failed to solve the alcohol problem. The work seeks a model that better fits what is known about the alcohol problem, and one that leads to more effective informal constraints on alcohol abuse. Alcoholics are viewed as being at some stage of an alcoholic process, a rehabilitation process, a labeling process, a clinicalization process and a dissocialization process. This way of thinking challenges the traditional notion that alcoholics are all-of-a-kind entities and that there is a single cause, or even a single set of causes, that account for the drinking of all alcoholics, or that explains the drinking of the same person at different times. Rather, it directs us to consider the dynamics of the changing combinations of interacting social, psychological and physiological forces influencing a person's drinking behavior as he progresses in the several processes.