Institutions Count

What leads to national progress? The growing consensus in the social sciences is that neither capital flows, nor the savings rate, nor diffuse values are the key, but that it lies in the quality of a nation's institutions. This book is the first comparative study of how real institutions affect national development. It seeks to examine and deepen this insight through a systematic study of institutions in five Latin American countries and how they differ within and across nations. Postal systems, stock exchanges, public health services and others were included in the sample, all studied with the same methodology. The country chapters present detailed results of this empirical exercise for each individual country. The introductory chapters present the theoretical framework and research methodology for the full study. The summary results of this ambitious study presented in the concluding chapter draw comparisons across countries and discuss what these results mean for national development in Latin America.

List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments 1. Institutions and Development: A Conceptual ReanalysisAlejandro Portes 2. The Comparative Study of Institutions: The "Institutional Turn" in Development Studies: A ReviewAlejandro Portes and Lori D. Smith 3. Institutional Change and Development in ArgentinaAlejandro Grimson, Ana Castellani, and Alexander Roig 4. Institutional Change and Development in Chilean Market SocietyGuillermo Wormald and Daniel Brieba 5. The Colombian Paradox: A Thick Institutional AnalysisCésar Rodríguez-Garavito 6. Development Opportunities: Politics, the State, and Institutions in the Dominican Republic in the Twenty-First CenturyWilfredo Lozano 7. The Uneven and Paradoxical Development of Mexico's InstitutionsJosé Luis Velasco 8. Conclusion: The Comparative Analysis of the Role of Institutions in National DevelopmentAlejandro Portes and Lori D. Smith Appendix: Investigators Contributors Index