Nowa ekonomia instytucjonalna a zmiany paradygmatu rozwoju gospodarczego
New institutional economics and a paradigm shift in economic development

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to identify potential sources of failure of the development of economics and new institutional economics in solving problems of economic development, and to present arguments that development economists use the simplified concept of institutions. For this reason they recommend economic policies that do not include the complexity of the process of institutional change. The first part of the article is devoted to outline the current state of research on economic development in the new institutional economics. The elements of the institutional theory of economic change are presented here. The second part presents the impact of the new institutional economics on dominant discourse on economic development, and how the development consensus has evolved. The new consensus has strong institutional character, but in fact, this institutional analysis is quite different from the analysis of the new institutional economics. The third part of the article shows how development economists use institutional analysis in their research. Most of them use the simplified concept of institutions. The economics policy, that they recommend, assumes that institutions could be easily changed, if the local specificities were taken into account. Policy makers want clear guidelines that they could use in practice. New institutional economists often indicate that the process of economic development is complex and, therefore, economic policy would probably not be effective. Moreover there is no workable general theory of institutions available to us. Therefore, it seems that in the case of solving problems of economic development, we should devote less attention to the general theory, and focus more on institutional microanalysis. In this way, it may be easier to create guidelines for a successful economic policy.

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