Article contents
When Order Affects Performance: Culture, Behavioral Spillovers, and Institutional Path Dependence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2018
Abstract
Evidence suggests that the cultural context influences the performance of laws, policies, and political institutions. Descriptive accounts reveal that outcomes and behaviors often depend on the array of historical institutions. This article presents a multi-institutional framework that can account for those findings through path-dependent behavioral spillovers. Individuals learn equilibrium behaviors when interacting in a new institutional setting. Initially, some individuals choose behaviors that align with their behaviors in similar extant institutions, creating a cultural context that can lead to inefficient outcomes. The article shows how avoiding path dependence requires sequencing (or designing) institutions to maintain behavioral diversity. Optimal sequencing thus requires positioning institutions with clear incentives early in the sequence as well as avoiding strong punishments that can stifle attempts to break established behavioral patterns.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 2018
Footnotes
The authors gratefully acknowledge the hospitality of INSEAD during a sabbatical leave; suggestions from David Laitin, Tim van Zandt, and Jenna’s graduate student seminar in Institutional Analysis; audience members at the Priorat Conference on Political Institutions, INSEAD, Hamburg University, University of Pennsylvania, the Université de Génève, ETH-Zurich, the University of Michigan, the IMF, the Santa Fe Institute, Princeton University, UCLA, and the London School of Economics, as well as research support from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office under Contract/Grant No. W911NF1010379.
References
- 27
- Cited by
Comments
No Comments have been published for this article.