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Determinants and effects of informal institutions in the context of transition

Baig, PA; (2016) Determinants and effects of informal institutions in the context of transition. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

In this thesis, I present three quantitative empirical studies of informal institutions. The focus of particular chapters varies from determinants of informal institutions to their effects on economic behaviour. The emphasis here (with exception of chapter 2) is mainly on transition economies as defined by European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Chapter 2 presents a multilevel study of determinants of generalised trust. Despite a wide spread acceptance that trust positively impacts various economic outcomes, only few studies attempted to understand the determinants of trust. They have also largely ignored the role of social context. The chapter proposes that trusting behaviour is embedded in the social context. More specifically I argue that the social context is reflected by religious affiliation and habitat size. The results provide support for my arguments. Chapter 3 investigates how weak and strong tie social capital affect occupational choice, defined as selection into wage employment, self-employment and ownership of a business employing others. This study is novel in showing that transition countries have moved on from the ‘transition inflicted’ model of interactions in the labour markets where personal connections were necessary to succeed. It suggests that social capital is in a process of transition itself as the transition countries move towards modern complex societies where social capital is supported by the economic system, not vice versa. Finally, chapter 4 seeks to understand the determinants of the incidence of corruption at individual level. This paper takes a new approach and considers the effects of the local environment on individual propensity to engage in corruption of officials and courts. The local level formal and informal determinants are reflected by the city size and access to technology. The results suggest that access to technology has powerful corruption reducing effect. Further, corruption appears to be particularly concentrated in large cities although capital cities show the opposite effect.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Title: Determinants and effects of informal institutions in the context of transition
Event: UCL (University College London)
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1528758
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