Politická ekonomie 2023, 71(5):591-618

Searching for Growth-conducive Institutions in Emerging Economies: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Woon Kan Yap ORCID...a, Jenny Gryzeliusa, Andrew Tek Wei Saw ORCID...b
a Tun Ahmad Sarji School of Government and Public Studies, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b Labuan Faculty of International Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan, Malaysia

This study aims to identify growth-conducive institutions unique to emerging economies. For that purpose, we examine the roles of Anglo-American institutions in fostering total factor productivity growth through the improvement of technical efficiency in emerging economies. Specifically, the impacts of the liberalistic and paternalistic types of regulatory institutions are discerned. The results show that institutional qualities such as reverence for the rule of law and effective governments robustly promote total factor productivity by improving technical efficiency, while voices of citizens and political stability exhibit a symbiotic relationship, where the efficacy of one of these qualities requires the sufficient prevalence of another. Regarding regulatory institutions, we found evidence that calls for protectionist policies to foster innovation, which is the key driver of technical efficiency.

Keywords: Institutional quality, total factor productivity, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis, strategic niche management
JEL classification: J24, O43, O47, P48

Received: November 13, 2022; Revised: May 14, 2023; Accepted: June 14, 2023; Prepublished online: October 5, 2023; Published: October 31, 2023  Show citation

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Kan Yap, W., Gryzelius, J., & Tek Wei Saw, A. (2023). Searching for Growth-conducive Institutions in Emerging Economies: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Politická ekonomie, 71(5), 591-618
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