Building Market Institutions: Property Rights, Business Formalization and Economic Development
The Mercatus Center welcomed Pompeu Fabra University Professor Benito Arruñada for a discussion of his manuscript, Institutional Foundations of Impersonal Exchange (University of Chicago Press). The book develops a new theory of business formalization reform and then uses that theory to identify the basic organizational constraints of formalization institutions, to analyze current reform policies and to propose an alternative policy strategy. Leading scholars from the fields of the New Institutional Economics, law, and development economics contributed to a discussion of the book, with all the participants agreeing that Professor Arruñada’s work adds a much needed perspective to the current thinking on property rights and economic development.
Social Change Project Manuscript Workshops provide constructive criticism for academic works in progress that contribute to the Social Change Project's goals of understanding the nature of institutional change and prosperity.
In the past such conferences have been held to aid in the development of manuscripts by Douglass North, Avner Greif, Deirdre McCloskey, and many others in the Mercatus Center's Network of Scholars.