Tax collection in the Roman Empire: a new institutional economics approach

This paper reviews the Roman tax collection system since the Late Republic to the Principality, focusing on the transition from the tax-farming system to a more centralized, census-based administration. We attempt to justify this transition according to New Institutional Economic theories (Transaction Cost Economics and Property Rights Theory). The paper argues that, during the Republic, the auction-based system of tax farming ended up giving place to opportunistic behaviors and abusing practices due to information asymmetries and contract incompleteness, enhanced by the collusion of tax farmers and governors. The Principality improved the efficiency of the tax collection system through the introduction of a bureaucratic and census-based administration, which allowed imperial employees to monitor the tax-farming activities.

Sustainable development: Innovations in business

Innovation and sustainable development have become buzzwords in the 21st century with the idea of creative destruction launched by Joseph Alois Schumpeter being the base for evolutionary economics. However, new institutional economics helps to understand the necessity of support provided to entrepreneurs and innovators by science and administration to reduce the risk of launching the said innovations. This e-book is devoted to selected types of innovation. Every type of innovation is described with the use of theoretical background and is enriched by adequate case study. Traditional division into four types of innovation, proposed by J.A. Schumpeter (1934), containing product, process, organizational and marketing innovations, was widely accepted, including European Union institutions (OECD/Eurostat, 2008). The concept of innovation has long been dominated by a technical approach to the innovation process, despite the economic arguments exposed by one of the precursors of the theory of innovation and, at the same time, the school of evolutionary economics—Joseph Alois Schumpeter. Frequently, in the context of innovation, it is indicated that organizational and marketing aspects play a part in the successful introduction of innovation onto the market. The structure of the book is based on the typology proposed by Keeley, Walters, Pikkel and Quinn (2013), which focuses on the economic character of innovations. Ten types of innovation are directly related to Schumpeter’s and Oslo Manual classification. A new set of innovations emphasize the economic side of innovation process. The technical novelties are to support new configuration, offering or customers’ experience. This new approach is based on presumptions coming from design thinking idea, leading to user—driven innovation and on cooperation with institutions and entities supporting innovation process. The chapters are devoted to every type of innovation, grouped into three major parts: innovations based on configuration, offering and experience. In the book, configuration includes types of innovations focused on innermost workings of an enterprise and its business system. Offering part contains the types of innovations, that are focused on an enterprise’s core product (good or service), or a collection of its products. The last part, dedicated to innovations based on experience, is focused on more customer-facing elements of an enterprise and its business system.

Transaction Costs in Planning Literature: A Systematic Review

“Transaction costs,” as a well-established theory in New Institutional Economics, has been used to explain and analyze various planning matters for about 30 years since its introduction to planning literature. However, there is no study on how planning-related studies have utilized the theory. This paper conducts a systematic review that aims to develop a better understanding of how transaction-cost theory is used in planning literature. The review shows that while potential contributions and implications of transaction costs have been conceptually discussed in planning literature, the empirical studies have remained limited, particularly concerning the magnitude of such costs in planning systems.

The Impact of Regional Culture on the Psychological Characteristics, Startup Behaviors and Regional Economy of Modern Chinese Business Gangs

Business gang refers to the enterprise cluster formed by geographical relationship, which has always been the focus of research on entrepreneurship and regional economic development. The research of new institutional economics shows that culture, as an informal system, will change the social psychology, thinking mode and behavior of economic individuals, and provide a good environment for the growth of start-ups, thus affecting economic activities and economic development. Taking the five modern business gangs in China as the research subject, this paper uses the comparative method to analyze the regional cultural differences of the five modern business gangs, as well as the differences of the entrepreneurs’ psychological characteristics and startup behaviors. Through the analysis of the economic data of the provinces where the modern business gangs are located, this paper summarizes the differences of economic development in different regions. It is concluded that regional culture has a significant impact on the development of modern business gangs and regional economy. It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of regional culture and promote the high-quality development of modern business gangs and regional economy.

Institutional Diversity of Transferring Land Development Rights in China—Cases from Zhejiang, Hubei, and Sichuan

With the continuous urbanization, China is facing a dilemma of achieving two conflicting targets in land governance, i.e., the continuous supply of urban construction land to support urbanization and the preservation of cultivated land for food security. Under China’s dual land system, the implementation of the “Linkage between Urban-land Taking and Rural-land Giving” (Linkage) policy is of great significance in promoting more inclusive urbanization by commodifying the land development right and connecting urban and rural land markets. In the specific land property right system and changing land governance of China, this policy appears to provide an opportunity for stakeholders other than the state to compete for the value from the transfer of development rights (TDR) and triggers the emergence of diversified approaches in organizing land projects in rural China. Based on the theoretical perspective of New Institutional Economics and empirical evidence from Zhejiang Province, Hubei Province, and Sichuan Province, this paper conducts a comparative institutional analysis for China’s TDR practice and argues that the diversified operational approaches in China’s practice have aligned various interests of the stakeholders through flexible participation methods and elaborate reallocation of land property rights, in order to fit various institutional environments and material conditions

A Sustainable Tourism Based on a New Institutional Economics Approach: Ecotourism Based on the Community in the Gasan Gadang Fishermen Village

This study aimed to determine the patterns of development and implementation of community-based ecotourism management and identify the impact of the community-based ecotourism in Gasan Gadang Village on the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the surrounding community. The methodology used was descriptive analysis with a new institutional economics approach and the Kruskal-Wallis Test analysis. The patterns of development and implementation of community-based ecotourism management with all levels of social change analysis, including formal and informal rules such as culture, customs, habits of Gasan Gadang villagers, institutional and governance management, and even the economy, are considered good. The Community-based ecotourism management has adopted the theory of resource allocation among stakeholders of Gasan Gadang Village. The findings of this study showed that community-based ecotourism institutions and management bring positive impacts on economic, social, and culture. There was no significant difference among economic, social, and environmental impacts between the non-authorities and community-based ecotourism authorities of Gasan Gadang Village. Thus, it could be said that the benefits of community-based ecotourism received by the community were all the same. Everyone got positive benefits. However, based on the findings, it could be seen that the biggest difference was the economic impacts followed by the social impacts, while the smallest difference is the environmental impacts. From this situation, it could be concluded that the performance of community-based ecotourism authorities in Gasan Gadang Village was good and positively impacted the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the Gasan Gadang Village fishermen community.

A Deep Analysis of Blockchain Technology from Socio-Economic and Technological Perspectives: Intrinsic Barriers and Potential Impact

Our aim is to understand technological and socio-economic barriers to blockchain solutions that are intrinsic in the blockchain technology stack itself (permissionless as well as permissioned). On the basis of that, we want to understand the future potentioal impact of blockchain technology. We provide an argumentation against the theoretical background of Williamson's instutional analysis framework, and triangulate the insights with results from four design science research efforts. We (i) characterize cryptocurrency as one-tiered collateralized money. We (ii) review potential blockchain solutions against defined essential modes of communications. We review (iii) well-known scalability issues and potential denial-of-service attacks through a new probabilistic model. We (iv) characterize a typical neglection of physical network infrastructure in blockchain technology discussions. We (v) describe four successful blockchain solutions and explain their design. There is (vi) no evidence that the proclaimed ``blockchain revolution'' can disrupt our institutional stack; instead, it can only happen in the boundaries of the current institutional stack. Nevertheless, it is possible to (vii) design useful blockchain solutions. The findings of this research enable policy makers, decision makers and information systems architects alike to make informed decisions about blockchain technology and its application. Given its theoretic foundation in new institutional economics, triangulated with comprehensive results from design science efforts, this study is the first of its kind in the area of blockchain technology research. <br>

A Deep Analysis of Blockchain Technology from Socio-Economic and Technological Perspectives: Intrinsic Barriers and Potential Impact

Our aim is to understand technological and socio-economic barriers to blockchain solutions that are intrinsic in the blockchain technology stack itself (permissionless as well as permissioned). On the basis of that, we want to understand the future potentioal impact of blockchain technology. We provide an argumentation against the theoretical background of Williamson's instutional analysis framework, and triangulate the insights with results from four design science research efforts. We (i) characterize cryptocurrency as one-tiered collateralized money. We (ii) review potential blockchain solutions against defined essential modes of communications. We review (iii) well-known scalability issues and potential denial-of-service attacks through a new probabilistic model. We (iv) characterize a typical neglection of physical network infrastructure in blockchain technology discussions. We (v) describe four successful blockchain solutions and explain their design. There is (vi) no evidence that the proclaimed ``blockchain revolution'' can disrupt our institutional stack; instead, it can only happen in the boundaries of the current institutional stack. Nevertheless, it is possible to (vii) design useful blockchain solutions. The findings of this research enable policy makers, decision makers and information systems architects alike to make informed decisions about blockchain technology and its application. Given its theoretic foundation in new institutional economics, triangulated with comprehensive results from design science efforts, this study is the first of its kind in the area of blockchain technology research. <br>

The evolution of the Nile regulatory regime: a history of cooperation and conflict

The objective of this study is to trace the historical evolution of the present Nile Basin regulatory framework and examine its influence on the current interactions among Nile riparian states. This research adopts a case-study design, with in-depth qualitative analysis of the Nile Basin as an example of the complex transboundary relations over shared waters. It uses an analytical framework derived from the New Institutional Economics (NIE) to analyse the evolution of the institutional framework that has governed the Nile basin and how it affected the annual water share allocated to each riparian country. The study argues that the historical beliefs and social norms of the riparian societies have been among the major factors that influenced the cooperation attempts during the past century and determined their outcomes. Therefore, a prerequisite to develop sustainable cooperation is levelling the playing field by addressing the beliefs and norms that have prevented cooperation while identifying the beliefs that can support cooperation.

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the institutional change in developing countries

Motivation: The Covid-19 pandemic is having a critical impact on economies, especially in developing countries. Such a serious external shock affects the distribution of economic rents, thus leading to potentially large institutional changes. Naturally, in the short term we are dealing with an economic crisis and a restriction of civil liberties in both autocratic and democratic countries, however, it is not known what the dynamics of institutional changes will be in the longer run. Aim: The main purpose of the article is to answer if the Covid-19 pandemic becomes a turning point that will determine the institutional system in developing countries for the next few decades. The first part of the article outlines the theory of institutional change, with particular emphasis on the role of external shocks. The next section presents studies on the socioeconomic impact of two major epidemics: The Black Death and the Great Influenza Pandemic. The third part conducts an assessment as to what extent the current pandemic may affect institutions in developing countries, by reference to the example of two countries: Tunisia and Cambodia. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of the new institutional economics. Results: If we look at the experiences from previous pandemics, current events and refer to the literature on the theory of institutional change, we can conclude that significant institutional changes caused by Covid-19 are unlikely. The process of institutional change is characterized by a specific complexity and changing dynamics. Nonetheless, it is the internal factors, reflecting the actions of people trying to maximize the benefits, which are the main cause of change in an institutional system. Therefore, the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely to strengthen the endogeneity of the process of institutional change, rather than change its course.