Institutions Matter Research Articles

Institutions matter: The role of institutions in the relationship between decision-making power and contraceptive autonomy.

Several academic papers have shown that the distribution of household decision-making power has a positive influence on women's contraceptive autonomy. This paper considers the role of the social or institutional environment (as captured by place of residence) in ameliorating or contributing to this relationship. Our study focuses on the context of Nigeria, a country with diverse gender norms and religious practices, often determined by geographic location. For example, Western common law is more prevalent in the southern Nigeria, while Sharia law is largely practiced in the North of the country. The analysis uses the Performance and Monitoring for Action (PMA) dataset (2019-2020), and analysis is done using logistic regressions. We find evidence that the relationship between household decision-making power and contraceptive autonomy is mediated by institutions (city). More specifically, we show that in Lagos-a state characterised by the increasing empowerment of women-women have more contraceptive autonomy as they gain decision-making power in the household. The opposite is true in Kano-household decision-making power has no bearing on contraceptive autonomy.

Relations Between the Holy See and Lithuania: a 100-Year History

The Article provides the analysis of the relations of the Holy See and the Republic of Lithuania from the beginning of the State’s independence until the current period. At the outset, the authors give an overview of different stages and key legal issues of the development of the said relations. Further, the research deals with typical provisions and specific features of a concordat as an international agreement. The following part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the provisions of current four agreements between the Holy See and Lithuania, adding comparison with the treaties concluded by the Holy See with other two Baltic States, namely Latvia and Estonia. The research focuses on key legal issues of the cooperation between the Holy See and Lithuania with minor aspects of the intersection of the historical, political, international, and religious context. The authors conclude that in the complex international political landscape, the Holy See has remained one of the most credible partners for Lithuania and a moral authority for the nation, dominated by Catholics. The recognition of Lithuania as a State shortly after its Independence Declaration of 1918 as well as non-recognition of its 50-year occupation significantly contributed to the restoration of the State’s independence in 1990. Although the reestablishment of the independent State of Lithuania being based on the continuation of the State’s identity opened door for securing the validity of the Concordat concluded by the Holy See and the Republic of Lithuania in 1927, it was no longer capable of reflecting new realities, and new fundamental changes required the conclusion of new treaties between the parties. In 2000, the Agreement concerning Juridical Aspects of the Relations between the Catholic Church and the State, the Agreement on Cooperation in Education and Culture, and the Agreement concerning the Pastoral Care of Catholics Serving in the Army were concluded between the Holy See and the Republic of Lithuania, while in 2012, the Agreement on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education occurred. These bilateral agreements reflect typical provisions of concordats arising from their unique nature of combining both political (legal) and ecclesiastical matters and securing autonomy of both parties: they regulate the legal status of the Catholic Church and numerous issues, encompassing institutional matters, religious freedom, religious education, family life, cultural heritage, pastoral care, and many others. These provisions are also similar in the agreements concluded by the Holy See and other two Baltic States, all having no state religion. However, the treaties of the Holy See concluded with Lithuania and Latvia have more common and more elaborated provisions than the agreement with Estonia, while some issues are relevant and, therefore, regulated in respect of merely a particular state.

Unpaid overtime and non-standard employment among young people in Europe: do national context and institutions matter?

ABSTRACT This article presents a multilevel analysis of unpaid overtime among young people (aged 15–34) across EU-28 member states. It finds that non-standard employment and the specific characteristics and institutions of Europe’s labour markets are related to unpaid overtime. Use has been made of the European Union Labour Force Survey database for 2019. The econometric analysis shows that a national level and a greater scope of collective bargaining agreements, a higher rate of involuntary part-time employment and lower levels of unemployment expenditure increase the probability of unpaid overtime among young people. Furthermore, our results reveal that how flexibility is boosted in European countries drives unpaid overtime. Temporary employment, working from home and a higher number of hours worked are positively related to unpaid overtime, while part-time employment and temporary work agencies are negatively related. Finally, the older and higher educated young workers have a greater propensity towards unpaid overtime, while there is a negative effect of shift work and no significant one in terms of gender and the degree of protection against dismissal. Policy implications for the implementation of flexibility policies and working time regulations are also discussed.

How informal institutions matter: clan culture and fertility in China

How informal institutions matter: clan culture and fertility in China

The performance of emerging markets during the Fed’s easing and tightening cycles: A cross-country resilience analysis

We investigate the determinants of emerging markets performance during five U.S. Federal Reserve monetary tightening and easing cycles during 2004–2023. We study how macroeconomic and institutional conditions of an Emerging Market (EM) at the beginning of a cycle explain EM resilience during each cycle. More specifically, our baseline cross-sectional regressions examine how those conditions affect three measures of resilience, namely bilateral exchange rate against the USD, exchange rate market pressure, and country-specific Morgan Stanley Capital International index (MSCI). We then stack the five cross-sections to build a panel database to investigate potential asymmetry between tightening versus easing cycles. Our evidence indicates that macroeconomic and institutional variables are associated with EM performance, determinants of resilience differ during tightening versus easing cycles, and institutions matter more during difficult times. Our specific findings are largely consistent with economic intuition. For instance, we find that current account balance, international reserves, and inflation are all important determinants of EM resilience.

COMMUNICATION PATTERNS OF THE JUNAIDIYAH THARȊQAH (SUFI ORDER) IN THE CASE OF THE RELOCATION OF SHAIKH MUHAMMAD QURTHUBI'S TOMB IN PALANGKA RAYA

The relocation of the grave of Junaidiyah Tharȋqah’s leader, Shaikh Muhammad Qurthubi, in Palangka Raya is quite unique. It was done without dismantling the old grave or moving his body. This unusual step was based on mystical messages from the shaikh’s spirit to his chosen students. This research explores why this action was taken and how this mystical doctrine became the shared belief of the community. It is a qualitative study, and data were collected through interviews and observation, using a phenomenological approach. The research findings are analyzed using theories of group communication, ritual communication, and the psychology of communication. The results show that Junaidiyah Tharȋqah is a primary group with norms and doctrines that members must follow, which determine their communication patterns. These patterns tend to be one-way in matters of teachings and spirituality, and multi-directional in administrative and institutional matters. Interpersonal communication is intimate and solid. The research implies that the Junaidiyah Tharȋqah's mystical doctrines deeply influence their members' communication patterns, fostering unwavering spiritual loyalty and shaping unique interpersonal and group communication dynamics.

The Yale-Cambridge Research Project to India: The Context, Disciplinary Character and Legal-Institutional Matters

This paper deals with the Yale-Cambridge Research Project which Helmut de Terra led to India in 1935. Its principal sponsors included the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yale University and the American Philosophical Society. The expedition worked in various parts of British India and the princely state of Kashmir. The project is considered of exceptional importance in the field of both geological and archaeological research. This paper sets the historical context of the project and analyzes its disciplinary and scholarly character. The expedition aimed to address both geological and archaeological questions. In view of this interdisciplinary formation of the expedition, this study finally delves into legal and institutional matters so as to find out who were responsible for formally coordinating, such as issuance of the license etc. with de Terra and his team. The Geological Survey of India, the Archaeological Survey and the princely state of Kashmir, thus, come into our discussion.

Do institutions matter for agri-food imports and exports between China and Africa? A gravity model analysis

This paper aims to study the role of institutional quality on agri-food trade (import and export) between China and 48 African countries during the 2001-2021 period. The gravity model of trade was employed by estimating the Generalised Least Square (GLS) and the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimators, which include zero trade flows for panel data. The main results show that voice and accountability, control of corruption, and the rule of law all enhance agri-food trade flows. While political instability encourages agri-food exports to China. In addition, the economic size of China, the trade cost (distance), and the population of African countries also encourage agri-food trade between China and African economies. Moreover, access to the sea, exchange rate policy, and the economic size of African nations deplete China’s agri-food imports from Africa. We showed the mechanism through which each institutional variable affects China’s agri-food trade flows to African nations.

Why Institutions Matter: Analysis of Their Significance in Shaping Economic, Environmental, And Policy Transformation

The role of institutions in shaping societal systems and responding to complex global challenges has gained increased attention in recent decades. Institutions have functioned to shape the development and sustainability of society. Nevertheless, numerous institutionally-led challenges that restrict and alter sustainability and development across various aspects of society have also emerged. While institutional importance is widespread, their relationship with development is debated and contested. Through a systematic review approach, this paper explores the concept of institutions to understand whether they matter for development and examine their relevance within economic, policy, and environmental structures. The study indicates that indeed institutions play a significant role in accelerating economic, policy, and environmental growth across space and time. It demonstrates how it drives policy cycles, fosters economic progress, and shapes environmental transition. The study reveals that institutions create order, facilitate innovation, drive market transactions, and environmental security by mitigating conflicts, enforcing regulations, enhancing cooperation, ensuring the distribution of resources, and promoting sustainable ecological guidelines. However, complexities in their functions, structures, and adaptation exist, which can stimulate instabilities, stagnation, and decline in societal progression. Achieving enhanced institutional capacity toward societal development and progress thus requires unwavering political commitment, innovative actions, and coordinated decision-making.

The Limits of Enforcement in Global Financial Governance: Blacklisting in FATF as Rational Myth

Abstract How might international institutions matter? To consider this central question of International Relations, we analyze a most-likely case for the importance of materially driven enforcement: the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) use of blacklisting in the global regime targeting money laundering and terrorism financing. Scholars and practitioners often argue that fear of financial harm caused by FATF’s lists explains the near-global commitment to FATF’s standards, even if compliance lags. We search for statistical evidence of this impact across four different measures of financial flows and find that listing is not correlated with financial harm. To explain these null results, we examine bank decision-making and find that the lists’ impact is likely diminished by two overlooked factors: the existence of multiple, competing lists and banks’ access to more fine-grained, client-specific information provided by third-party companies. We interpret this contradiction—a commitment to compliance generated in part by a fear of enforcement, despite a lack of evidence for enforcement’s impact—as a “rational myth.” The results challenge a common understanding of a major global governance regime, confirm ideas about the limited ability of states or International Organizations to control governance outcomes, and advance a new research agenda on the impact of bank decision-making on global governance.

Total factor productivity and institutional quality in Vietnam: which institutions matter most?

The roles of institutional quality’s impact on firm performance are becoming increasingly prominent in the literature. This is true in the Global North and South. Vietnam has seen less research on this topic than other developing countries, so this paper seeks to rectify this by examining whether or not institutional quality influences firm performance, as measured by total factor productivity (TFP). This paper also digs deeper into the sub-components to see which institutions are the most influential. We applied the General Method of Moments (GMM) approach to a firm-level panel dataset covering the 2010–2020 period to examine institutional quality's impact on firm TFP. Results are explored by firm size and by ownership type (domestic private, foreign and state-owned). Using rich datasets covering institutional quality at the provincial level in Vietnam and also individual firm performance from 2010 to 2020, we found that Time cost (how long it takes firms to deal with the government on various issues) and Labor policy (how easy it is to hire good quality labor) are the most important of the 10 institutions studied. Additionally, while not all institutions influence TFP, institutional quality overall (all 10 institutions combined) clearly has a positive influence on TFP. This study fills a research gap by examining the relationship between institutional quality and firm performance in Vietnam. The findings emphasize the significance of Time cost and Labor policy as influential institutions and highlight the positive overall impact of institutional quality on TFP. The policy recommendations offered provide valuable insights for the government to further enhance firm productivity through targeted measures.

Charisma, claimocracy and education policy in England and Norway

ABSTRACT Education reform internationally has focused on school principals as corporate transformational leaders. Our research in England and Norway has identified the problematics of this model, where we have recognised an education reform claimocracy that has committed policy violence through this imposed identity. We explain the meaning and evidence for a claimocracy, and we show convergences in reform design and intentions. We then examine the divergences, and show how the political system and the ideological views of those who occupy roles and institutions matter, and this is used to explain how corporate transformational leadership has been variously adopted, resisted and developed within the two systems. We argue that the field of critical educational leadership needs to give attention not only to the problematics of this model, but to examine how the political system and the policy practices of its occupants need to be examined historically in regard to assertions about the good school leader.

Fintech and tax revenues: does political institution matter?

ABSTRACT The study investigates the effect of fintech on tax revenues while empirically measuring the moderating effects of political institutions. Using the iterated GMM estimator, the study utilises a sample of 24 low and middle-income countries and a dataset spanning 2013 to 2021. The findings indicate that the advancement of fintech considerably benefits tax revenues, meaning that fintech, in the form of technology integration into taxation, can be a valuable tool for efficient tax collection and administration. The research also shows that political institutions positively affect tax revenues, implying that sound political institutions are indispensable for increased tax revenues. Most interestingly, the empirical findings provide evidence of the positive moderating effects of political institutions on the nexus between fintech and tax revenues, which suggests that the improvement in political institutions fosters the significant positive effect of fintech on tax revenues in these countries. The governments and policymakers of these countries can boost tax revenues through, on one hand, fintech development and, on the other hand, solid political institutions that support fintech development.

Decolonisation: meaning, sentiments and implications for heritage

ABSTRACT Within the printed and online newspaper media in the UK, notions of ‘decolonisation’ referring to various contexts, such as historical, relating to museums and institutions, cultural decolonisation and in relation to modern independence discussions, can be traced. In this article, we have applied topic modelling and natural language processing methods to carry out a classification of, and sentiment analysis on, newspaper headlines and texts from leading British newspapers covering decolonisation over the past decade. The results show an abrupt change in the meaning of decolonisation starting in the middle of the 2010s with an increased focus on cultural and institutional matters, particularly in right-leaning media. Surprisingly, the editorial slant of broadsheets seemingly only had at best moderate effects on tone, while headlines in right-wing tabloids were significantly more negative. Articles covering cultural aspects of decolonisation were substantially more negative than those applying a more traditional, territorial definition of decolonisation. Given the influence of newspaper media on public and private opinions, we discuss the heritage implications of these findings and suggest avenues for further investigation.

Practice what you preach: Does the legal status of microfinance institutions matter in gender equality?

AbstractConsidering the importance of promoting gender equality, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have emerged to reduce the gender gap by supplying credit opportunities to women. However, the microfinance literature has largely focused on the role of women in the client base while devoting less attention to their representation in the organizational structure of MFIs. This study aims to fill this gap. Using ANOVA and random effects models, our purpose is to investigate which types of MFIs more intensively promote gender equality within their workforce, at any of the organizational ladders. We analyze data from 1222 MFIs across 102 developing countries from 2010 to 2018. Empirical evidence reveals that the presence of females in both the workforce and the client base is significantly lower in commercially motivated MFIs (e.g., banks and other for‐profit institutions) compared to non‐government organizations (NGOs), and —to a lesser extent— credit unions, cooperatives and rural banks. Our results suggest that the microfinance sector would benefit from a stronger emphasis on NGO‐driven initiatives to promote female representation in terms of both employment opportunities and access to credit.

Do institutions matter for citizens' health status? Empirical evidence from Italy.

This paper investigates the role of institutional quality in explaining cross-regional variation in population health status in Italy. We first introduce a composite Regional Health Status Indicator summarizing life expectancy, mortality and morbidity data. Then, we study the empirical relationship between this indicator and a set of socioeconomic, health system and institutional controls at the Italian regional level over the period of 2011-2019. We find that institutional quality is a driver of population health. Furthermore, well-functioning local institutions and regions compliant with national standards in terms of public healthcare services (Essential Levels of Care) make socioeconomic context no longer relevant for population health, potentially reducing inequalities.

Financial inclusion in India: How far do grassroots institutions matter?

AbstractThough the relevance of grassroots institutions for financial inclusion (FI) is widely recognised, we still do not fully understand its differential effect on FI, particularly in relation to commercial banks. To investigate this issue, we consider the household's moneylender dependence as an indicator of financial exclusion and thus our outcome variable. Further, we have developed FI indices using indicators of commercial and cooperative banks, which we used as explanatory variables in our analysis. Our results show that, while there is a decreased dependence on moneylenders even at low levels of FI through cooperatives, commercial banks show an inverted U‐shaped relationship implying a decreasing effect only after a threshold level.

Environmental taxation and inclusive green growth in developing countries: does the quality of institutions matter?

The promotion of inclusive green growth is one of the most debated topics in international forums and is considered a major concern by all countries in the world. Although the existing literature has examined several determinants of inclusive green growth, the impact of environmental taxation on inclusive green growth is relatively little explored. This study is therefore the first attempt to examine the impact of the environmental tax on inclusive green growth for developing countries from 2000 to 2021. To do this, we apply the system generalised method of moments (GMM) that controls unobserved heterogeneity, heteroskedasticity, simultaneity, reverse causality and endogeneity. The empirical results show that environmental tax promotes inclusive green growth. In addition, our results indicate that the control of corruption, government efficiency, the quality of regulation and the rule of law interact with the environmental tax to promote inclusive green growth. Furthermore, this study reveals interestingly that the environmental tax has a positive impact on the two components of inclusive growth and green growth, but the institutional factors that accentuate the impact of the environmental tax are somewhat nuanced. The results of the study have important policy implications for decision-makers in developing countries in promoting inclusive and environmentally friendly growth.

Foreign direct investment and inclusive finance: do financial markets and quality of institutions matter?

We examine the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on financial inclusion. To identify the causal effect of FDI on financial inclusion, we use plausibly exogenous source of variations in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as a novel instrumental variable (IV) for net FDI inflows. Using annual data for a broad panel of 90 countries over the period 2004 to 2017, our results show that FDI improves financial inclusion for both “access to finance" and “use of financial services". This impact is more pronounced for relatively poor countries and developing countries compared to rich and developed countries. We also find that higher financial market development and quality institutions improve financial inclusion directly. Moreover, financial market development and institutional quality can serve as potential channels and moderating variables through which FDI affects financial inclusion. Our results are robust to various estimations and sample splitting and have important implications for policy on financial inclusion.

Governments manipulate official Statistics: Institutions matter

Many governments have been reported to systematically manipulate official statistics. However, scholarly research has not extensively dealt with the determinants of data manipulation, beyond the effect of autocracy. We extend the literature by including institutional factors hypothetically affecting data manipulation. Regressing the gap between GDP – predicted by night-time lighting data – and „official“ GDP on these institutional factors suggests that economic openness and democracy decrease manipulation, while decentralization increases manipulation. Political openness decreases manipulation for countries under-reporting GDP and increases manipulation for countries over-reporting GDP. Surprisingly, no effects are found for press freedom and the independence of the statistical office.