Institutional Obsolescence: Why Do Institutions Persist though Evolutionary Selection Pressure Changes Radically?

Abstract

Suggesting socio-cultural values are selectors of institutions and institutional practices, and institutions in turn are selectors of (economic) behaviors, we investigate what explains the persistence of institutions that were aligned with past socio-cultural values when the values subscribed to in society have fundamentally changed. What, in other words, explains the persistence of obsolete institutions? We do so by investigating the labor market situation for academics in post-communist societies in Europe.

Keywords:

• institutions
• institutional change
• evolution
• institutional obsolescence

JEL Classification Codes:

• A13
• B52
• L50
• P30

Notes

1 A practice is “any form of activity specified by a system of rules [(set of) institutions] which defines offices, roles, moves, penalties, defenses, and so on, and which gives activity its structure” (Rawls 1955, 3).

2 We refer to these as variations at the level of “I,” here sometimes referred as (I) choices.

3 This paragraph is based on “Romania Overview” (n.d.).

4 The structure of economics textbooks would be, in pre-capitalist times, in which, by theme, the views of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and, finally as a way of concluding the discussion, former Romanian party-chair Ceausescu would be presented. Being able to loyally reproduce and support the views in detail of the leader of one’s immediate reference community was rewarded.

5 Before becoming a full professor in the Romanian academic system, it is necessary to produce a habilitation thesis that links four selected, necessarily Thomson Reuter’s ISI-listed publications from the indicated journal list and to defend their coherence and message publicly—an influence from the pre-communist, German HE system, but also creating room for academics to (be expected to) show the socio-cultural value of loyalty.

6 Books or chapters in books or presentations at conferences do not count, or much less, unless these are published by established publishers such as Routledge, Edward Elgar, Palgrave Macmillan, or an established University Press.

Additional information

Funding

This project was financed by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu & Hasso Plattner Foundation research grants LBUS–IRG–2020–06.

Notes on contributors

Ioana Negru

Ioana Negru is at the University of Sibiu, Romania, on the Faculty of Economic Sciences.

Wilfred Dolfsma

Wilfred Dolfsma is at Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands, Business Management and Organization group.