On Tuesday, March 21st, 2007, Professor Lee Benham from the Ronald Coase Institute in Washington University gave a lecture on The Asian Experiments in Institutional Innovation: A New Institutional Economics Perspective. Associate Professor Chen Zhao, Associate Professor Lu Ming, Doctor Zhang Yuan, Doctor Kou Zonglai, Doctor Zhang Yan, Doctor Chen Shiyi, Doctor Feng Jing, Doctor Fan Xiangyan and some students took part in this lecture.
Many policy reforms are being undertaken to increase economic performance by changing the rules of the game. The particular features of success or failure are often not well understood. This lecture discussed the state of the art concerning institutional analysis and the prospects for improved understanding of institutions in China.
A fundamental question facing all countries is this: how to get better institutions (rules of the game) in place? Having better institutions in place is essential to improve economic performance. We know that institutions are path-dependent: history matters. Local knowledge is essential for successful institutional innovation. An institutional innovation that works in one setting may not work in another setting. At present there is little systematic evidence concerning what institutional innovations work, and under what circumstances. In recognition of this, we seek to devise a better market for information about institutional innovations, so we can learn more about successes and failures. The problem is not so much discovering institutional failures – which are widespread - but rather learning about institutional successes, which often go unrecognized or unpublicized.
After the report, the teachers and the students had an intense discussion on the topic.
