Measuring Law and Institutions III:
Analytical and Methodological Challenges
Barcelona. October 2-3, 2009
Institutional analysis has been suffering from a deficit of measurement. In some areas, systematic measures have already been developed but in others theories are still waiting for systematic measurement. Microanalytical studies have been successful in measuring how economic agents coordinate in a given institutional environment. However, they often emphasize certain dimensions of organizational performance and focus on single transactions and cases, which makes their conclusions hard to generalize. Moreover, since many of them take institutions as given, they sideline the measure of institutional performance. On the other hand, the use of measurement in “macro” analyses of institutions has been essential in redefining research and policy agendas but many of the measures are often seen as too general. They are claimed to reduce complex institutions into oversimplified categories, such as legal origins, the rule of law or political regimes, establishing links with macroeconomic performance without paying due attention to “transmission” mechanisms between institutional features and alleged consequences.
Two related workshops have already been held in Paris in December 2006 and 2007. The first gathered representatives of organizations producing institutional indicators—such as the WB, OECD, ILO, EU (see http://economix.u-paris10.fr/en/activites/colloques/?id=23). In the second, prominent scholars presented works based on these indicators, which were then discussed by NIE and law and economics scholars (http://economix.u-paris10.fr/en/activites/ws/?id=52). These workshops allowed evaluation of the achievements and drawbacks of these initiatives, indicating the relative absence of theoretical foundations in many of the indicators and identifying the strong influence of policy issues on methodologies and databases.
Taking stock of these experiences, the Workshop will focus on how New Institutional Economics may inform these quantitative approaches to institutions. It aims at identifying the key methodological problems and evaluating the different solutions available, examining both the role of theory in measurement and the role of measurement in policy. In particular, the Workshop will explore how to overcome the difficulties for (1) implementing institutional measures, (2) capturing institutional structure, (3) enriching the range of measured institutional outcomes and (4) producing useful measures for management and policy.
The format of the contributions to the Barcelona Workshop is relatively open, including methodological analyses, surveys, positions papers. The papers deal either with the whole or some part of the following sequence: Theory → Measurement → Test → Policy
Contributions will be published in a major academic journal. We are considering the possibility of producing a “position paper” which would reflect the shared views on the topic.
Goals
The aim of this third workshop is to study new theoretical developments in the understanding of institutions and the law. In particular, it will examine (1) how these developments could encourage more appropriate methodologies to measure the structure and impact of institutions, especially thanks to a better understanding of transmission mechanisms; and (2) which types of institutional variables are more amenable to theory- and policy-relevant measurement. To put it another way, the aim of this third workshop is to exploit recent advances in (new) institutional economics to explore what should be done in quantitative approaches to institutions.
Organization
Each paper is allocated 30 minutes. Presenters can freely distribute this time between presentation and clarification questions.
Two types of paper will be given: papers on methodological issues that directly discuss some aspect central to the theme of the workshop, and papers presenting specific contributions use different methodologies to analyze institutions.
Consistent with the goal of the workshop, we will not to discuss the later category of papers the standard way but we will rather rely on them as starting points for the roundtable-like discussions following their presentation. Therefore, discussants are strongly encouraged to focus on methodological issues related to the theme of their session, using the papers presented in each session as starting points and illustration.
Location:
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Room 23.S05
C/Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
08005 Barcelona
Metro Line 4 (Station “Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica”)
Map: http://www.upf.edu/campus/ciutadella/jaume.html
Daily Schedule
The workshop will start on October 2nd at 9:00 am and will finish on October 3rd at 5:30 pm.
Basic format of Invited Paper sessions
- Presentation: 30 minutes
- Roundtable discussions: 15 minutes for each discussant; 1 hour for open discussion
With the support of
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