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Cited by 1,096

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change

Open access
GREIF, AVNER, LAITIN, DAVID D.·2004·American Political Science Review

Abstract

This paper asks (a) why and how institutions change, (b) how an institution persists in a changing environment, and (c) how processes that it unleashes lead to its own demise. The paper shows that the game-theoretic notion of self-enforcing equilibrium and the historical institutionalist focus on process are both inadequate to answer these questions. Building on a game-theoretic foundation, but responding to the critique of it by historical institutionalists, the paper introduces the concepts of quasi-parameters and self reinforcement. With these concepts, and building on repeated game theory, a dynamic approach to institutions is offered, one that can account for endogenous change (and stability) of institutions. Contextual accounts of formal governing institutions in early modern Europe and the informal institution of cleavage structure in the contemporary world provide illustrations of the approach.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0003055404041395

Cites

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Citations

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Metadata

Authors
GREIF, A., & LAITIN, D. D.
Venue
American Political Science Review
Published
2004-11
Volume
98
Issue
4
Pages
633-652
ISSN
  • 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5943
OpenAlex
W2142943317
Cited by
1,096
References
7
FWCI
56.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1017/s0003055404041395
The paper
GREIF, A., & LAITIN, D. D. (2004). A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change. American Political Science Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055404041395

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.