Joachim Zweynert studied economics and political science at the University of Hamburg. Since 2011 he has been Professor of International Political Economy at Witten/Herdecke University. From 2014 to 2017 he was the founding director of the Witten Institute for Institutional Change. He is one of the editors of the »Journal of Contextual Economics. Schmollers Jahrbuch«. Joachim Zweynert's main fields of research are institutions and institutional change, political economy and the history of economic ideas.Magdalene Silberberger studied economics at the University of Wuppertal and the Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, France, majoring in international economics and did her PhD at the Ruhr University Bochum. Since 2015, she has been assistant professor of Development Economics at Witten/Herdecke University. Her main field of interest is empirical work in international trade and development economics with a focus on institutions, regulations and the environment.

In recent years, economists and social scientists have (re-)discovered the impact of institutions on growth and development. Moreover, by now the insight that "institutions matter" has become common wisdom, not only in academia but also in development organizations and in politics. The papers in this volume intend to shed light on the question whether "institution" is just a new buzzword or whether the inclusion of the institutional dimension of development provides real and politically relevant insights.

Magdalene Silberberger and Joachim Zweynert
Introduction

Alice Nicole Sindzingre
Institutions as a Composite Concept: Explaining their Indeterminate Relationships with Economic Outcomes

Christian Berker
The Geopolitical Context for Institutional Change: The Case of Prussia in the 17th and 18th Century

Johanna Friederike Goetter
Development, Informal Institutions and Agency Analyzed through the Lens of New Institutional Anthropology: A Modification of Ensminger's Framework on Institutional Change

Valentin Seidler
Institutional Copying in the 20th Century: The Role of 14,000 British Colonial Officers

Janis Kluge
Can Regulatory Competition Improve Contracting Institutions? A Russian Tale of Two Reforms

Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi and Balgah Roland Azibo
Repositioning Local Institutions in Natural Resource Management: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Africa

Ngozi Adeleye, Evans Osabuohien and Ebenezer Bowale
The Role of Institutions in the Finance-Inequality Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa

In recent years, economists and social scientists have (re-)discovered the impact of institutions on growth and development. A quickly growing empirical literature seems to provide ever more evidence that the quality of institutions is the key determinant of the wealth or poverty of nations. Moreover, the insight that »institutions matter« has become common wisdom also in development organizations and in politics.

At the same time, development research and practice have both seen a long chain of buzzwords and concepts which, for a certain period of time, were believed to provide the key to explaining the global problems of development. Sooner or later, however, all of these buzzwords went out of fashion and were replaced by new buzzwords and simple policy prescriptions based on these. The papers in this volume intend to shed light on the question whether »institution« is just a new buzzword or whether the inclusion of the institutional dimension of development provides real and politically relevant insights.