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Institutional Diagnostic Synthesis

Source: World Bank/ Curt Carnemark

Leadership Team:

François Bourguignon and Jean-Philippe Platteau

Countries:

Benin, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Tanzania

Research Themes:

Civil Service/Bureaucracy, Clientelism and Patronage, Education, Electoral Systems, Firms, Markets, Labour, Property and Land Rights, Public Service Delivery, Taxation/Redistribution

Institution Types:

Informal Institutions, Legal Institutions, Other, Political Institutions, Private Sector, State Institutions

Project summary

The Institutional Diagnostic synthesis is the culmination of the research undertaken in the four EDI case studies in Bangladesh, Benin, Mozambique and Tanzania. The synthesis also reflects on two historical case studies – Taiwan and South Korea – and describes what the diagnostic might have concluded in those countries at a similar point in their development. It also describes in detail the methodology undertaken and draws conclusions across the whole project.

The outline of the synthesis is as follows: in Chapter 1, the concept of institutions is defined and the interactions between formal and informal institutions are discussed before presenting and illustrating the main existing economic theories of institutional change. In Chapter 2, the methodological approach of the IDP is explained and justified. In the four subsequent chapters, the IDP approach is applied to the four countries which were thoroughly investigated through the EDI project: Benin and Tanzania in Chapter 3 and Mozambique and Bangladesh in Chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 then then address the two big achievers: South Korea and Taiwan. Then come the in-depth synthesis chapters. Chapter 7 looks at various aspects of the structural transformation in the six countries’ economies, pointing to strengths in South Korea and Taiwan, and to weaknesses in the four countries selected for in-depth study. Chapter 8 probes the role of politics and the initial conditions prevailing at the time development efforts were initiated, while Chapter 9 focuses on issues of state capacity and property rights, still upholding the comparative perspective that is at the heart of the book. Finally, Chapter 10 offers a general conclusion, in which basic lessons from the analysis, and the implications for development assistance, are identified.