Wolność gospodarcza a teoria zmiany instytucjonalnej

Andrzej Kondratowicz

Abstract

Summary

So far, economics does not offer a well-developed, coherent theory of institutional change. Many important questions pertaining its mechanisms still await their answers. One of them is endo- or exogeneity of institutions themselves and of their changes. The latter may be seen as confrontation of Hayeki- an vs. Euckenian approach to change. This, in turn, leads to the analysis of connections between formal and informal institutions – and especially of the speed with which they evolve.

Each theory requires empirical verification. Either by choice or by lack of better alternatives we frequently assume that an index of economic freedom may serve as a numerical characteristic of the institutional matrix of an economy. This approach makes it possible to test empirically the influence of institutions on economic outcomes. This is a quantum leap forward in comparison to the Walrasian orthodoxy, but is still marred with many limitations. Namely, only to a small degree it reflects the informal institu- tions and it cannot detect differences in quality of morphologically similar ones. As a result, the index of economic freedom, although very useful in empirical verification of many elements of the emerging theory of institutional change, alone is insufficient to fulfill such a goal and must be supplemented by qualitative analysis of informal institutions and of major aspects of good governance in public sector.