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This article explores the challenges of redefining property rights for land, with application to monarchical Iraq from 1944 to 1958. We apply two processes in the analysis of economic institutions to study history: a puzzle-solving method at the micro level, with broader interest in the role of institutions in development and economic growth at the macro level. Thus, we explore the interaction between demanders and suppliers of land reform in the political market, focusing on the parliamentary influence of big landholders as an interest group. We conclude that despite increasing demand for land reform, politicians were able to supply quantitative change only, consisting of the allocation of newly arable land to landless cultivators, rather than the redistribution of existing assets or qualitative change. We analyse these findings in relation to our concern for the role of institutions in development. Our discussion uncovers key insights into Iraq's political economy and its institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition economies of developing countries to a market economy has a strong impact on the governance of cooperatives, transforming them from state-controlled organizations to member-based organizations. Therefore an important part of the performance of cooperatives lies in strengthening their relationship with their members. We conduct a survey on cooperatives from different regions of Algeria. The estimation of a bivariate probit highlight the determinants of the relationship between governance participation and investment in cooperative. Comparison with other studies on different institutional contexts underlines the particularity of Algerian cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Megaron is the property of KARE Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper provides a novel perspective for the examination of urban public transport (UPT) systems based on a literature review of new institutional economics (NIE). New institutional economics is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary economic perspective which seeks to explain the role of institutions in the performance of socio-economic systems. It encompasses various economic theories including transaction cost economics, agency theory, contract theory and property rights economics. Although NIE-based approaches have been utilised in different sectors and policy areas, management and organisation of UPT systems is a policy area where the implications of NIE-related theories have not been thoroughly explored. UPT systems are complex and involve a variety of transport actors such as transport authorities, regulators, operators and passengers. These actors interact with each other as embedded in an institutional environment which structures the rules, hence determines the incentives, roles and liabilities for the actors. However, previous studies have generally taken this institutional environment as given and have not problematised it. This paper seeks to provide a concise literature review of UPT through the perspective of NIE to delve into the institutional configuration of UPT systems so that an institutional account of UPT is given. An institutional framework is proposed to help structure the current literature on UPT. To explore the applicability of NIE in conceptualising and problematising the issues concerning the management of UPT, the paper attempts to delineate the institutional landscape of UPT. The informal and formal institutions, governance structures and contractual relationships in UPT are examined through the lens of NIE. These institutional levels constitute the building blocks for the institutional arrangement of the UPT systems, and the proposed institutional framework for the analysis of UPT systems reviews and examines each institutional level in a systematic way. The paper explores the potential added-value that NIE provides, identifies the research gaps in the literature, and finally, shows the future avenues for NIE-inspired UPT studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Original Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics display several similarities. However, differences in methodology and normative stance are too big to reconcile both approaches. Both approaches may keep each other sharp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The gnoseological sense of a new paradigm, apart from the methodological and sociological sense, includes its the deepest essence. It is expressed in a process of forming and popularization of a paradigm. It includes essential factors of a particular paradigm which are reflected by its general sense. Revealing the essence of the gnoseological sense enables to reveal the main factors from the essential ones, which have been applied unintentionally. The same applies to new institutional economics when it is used without scientific reflection. An idea of revealing the essence of its (of the institutional economics) gnoseological sense is to reveal aspects of the individualism and the holism hidden in it. Aim: Goal of this paper is to reveal the essence of the outline of the gnoseological sense of the paradigm of the new institutional economics. Results: Result of the study is presentation of relations between the individualism and the holism in the paradigm of the new institutional economics. The main conclusion is that the paradigm of the economics sui generis is not homogeneous, similarly to the social sciences. The new institutional economics derives a holistic perspective from the sociology, and individualistic one from the neoclassical economics. Consequently the new institutional economics is based on contradictory foundations (it is of dual nature); this becomes clear at a detailed level of considerations concerning its paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Over 30 years ago, Deng Xiaoping had the two-term limit on the presidency inscribed in the constitution of China. It was part of Deng’s plan to institutionalize leadership changes in China, to avoid a return to one-man rule. This solution has ensured political stability which undoubtedly had a positive impact on economic growth in the following decades. However, in March 2018, the National People’s Congress of China approved the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency. Moreover, president Xi Jinping consolidated his political power as the party voted to enshrine his name and political ideology in the party’s constitution — elevating his status to the level of its founder, Chairman Mao. Aim: The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of recent changes in the political system of China on the Chinese economy as well as the chances for further development of this country. The paper applies the new institutional economics perspective, particularly, the limited and open access orders framework proposed by D.C. North, J.J Wallis, and B.R. Weingast. Results: The article will present arguments proving that recent political changes in China will negatively affect growth and economic development. The concentration of power in the hands of one man could be a symptom of regression of the limited access order, which, according to North, Wallis, and Weingast affects not only the economy but also could increase the risk of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology has been considered a vehicle to foster development in poor countries by promoting applications such as secure delivery of humanitarian aid, digital identity services, and proof of provenance. This article examines whether (and if so, how) blockchain technology can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of foreign aid governance, thereby moving beyond completely anonymous contexts. Foreign aid governance is plagued by lack of credible commitments among states, which are further exacerbated by information asymmetries and which often undermine aid effectiveness. In this context, blockchain technology holds two promises. First, through the guaranteed execution of smart contracts, it can strengthen the credibility of state commitments, for example collective burden-sharing rules among a group of donors or recipient country compliance with policy conditionality in return for aid. Second, through leveraging prediction markets, blockchain technology can allay information problems related to the verification of real-world events along the entire aid delivery chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Theory of Institutional Change by Douglass C. North traces the long-term economic performance of a nation back to the quality of its institutions because they are able to ensure sustainable reductions in transaction costs. The approach claims to provide an interpretive framework applicable to all of recorded human history. It thus has an undeniably historical dimension. The theory explains institutional change as an induced change in relative prices caused by technological progress, which inverts the existing balance of power between suppliers of the factors of production, thus leading to a renegotiation of the content of the institutional arrangement. By tracing institutions as ideal superstructure back to a negotiating equilibrium between the owners of the factors of production as a material basis, the Theory of Institutional Change includes a materialistic component. For this reason, it is argued that North's theory should be considered as a variety of Historical Materialism, an idea first formulated by Karl Marx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to explain the process of the institutional transition of Taiwan, applying the limited and open access orders framework proposed by D.C. North, J. J Wallis and B. R. Weingast. The article analyses economic and political reforms in order to extract the factors positively affecting the process of economic development in Taiwan. The findings indicate that the key factor was the security threat of Communist China. However, other conditions were also important. It should be noted that Chiang Kai-shek's government could learn from its past mistakes, and it was an outsider regime. Moreover, the USA aid helped to consolidate the dominant coalition. Finally, ethnic tensions between the newcomers from the Mainland and the Taiwanese resulted in the separation of the political sphere from the economic sphere, which was conducive to economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost theory is largely used to investigate the formal domain of land and housing. In the informal domain, however, this perspective has been employed largely as a supplement in addressing the other fundamental notion in new institutional economics—property rights—despite the possibility that informality in land development can emerge regardless of the informality or formality of such rights. To cover this gap, this study developed a theoretical framework based on transaction cost theory to explain the formal–informal dichotomy in land development. The proposed framework maintains that land development depends on engaging in transactions that involve total or partial ownership of a combination of capital and land through lease and/or sale contracts, which enable landowners to earn from the new rental prices produced by the increase in land prices. Landowners are afforded two avenues from which to reduce transaction costs, namely, formal and informal institutional frameworks, each defining and enforcing restrictive rules on agents' actions. These avenues, however, are simultaneously a source of new transaction costs that can affect the expected financial return of land development. Landowners therefore tend to choose the institutional framework that entails lower transaction costs but enables higher gains. Thus, the higher transaction costs associated with a formal institutional framework are the primary deterrents to the selection of this structure. In turn, informal land development continues to expand, regardless of the existence of formal prohibitive measures. We investigated the formal–informal dichotomy in the rural land development process in Tehran Province, Iran. The results indicated that transaction costs cause inefficiency in formal institutions, thereby driving the perpetuation of informal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Institutional Certified Evaluation and Accreditation" in Japan is conducted in universities, junior colleges, and institutions of technology. It evaluates the synthetic states of educational studies, organizational management, and maintenance of facilities. Such higher education organizations are obliged to undergo the evaluation in every seven-year period. When the "Certified Evaluation and Accreditation" began, various evaluations by several organizations were expected to occur. The actual" Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System," however, lacks such diversity. The aims of the study are to identify such situations and investigate the causal structure of the evaluation mechanism from the viewpoint of interaction among actors related to the system. Various problems have been flagged by researchers concerning the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System. The Association for University Evaluation that was established in the wake of the system being introduced, in its declaration of establishment, shows that it lacks a diverse and pluralistic point of view in evaluating the role or contribution of universities, which have an economic and social spread. The most negative arguments about the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System are often presented from a functionalist perspective that seeks the cause of problems in the paradigm of the policy leader who introduced the system. An actor who has a sense of purpose can reasonably inform the system. The author argues, however, that this understanding is incorrect. Furthermore, from the practical point of view that arguments about evaluation are likely to refer to questions concerning the" Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System, it should be quite difficult for such assertions to revise the legal system, which acts in the context of administrative reform. In this study, the problems of the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation system are discussed through the process of dependence that arises from interactions among actors related to the system. Therefore, this study tries to identify a solution to impede the variety that arises from the fact that the system becomes" very difficult to convert from a self-reinforcing process" once a system is adopted. Specifically, this study considers the following subjects. First, it shows that the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System, in itself, allows a variety of accreditation methods by referring to discussions at the time of its enactment. Second, it identifies the action choices of the actors (Ministry of Education, accreditation organization, universities) related to the system, and proves that the "Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System" reinforces itself while lacking diversity. Third, it schematizes an actual situation in the" Certified Evaluation and Accreditation System" as a state of equilibrium, then tries to explain the mechanism using the New institutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relates competition studies and views on competition policy within Austrian economics to the dynamic capabilities theory. The idea of interacting research programs in economics is used to provide the frame for reflecting on particular issues of competition, on the one hand, and (1) ignorance, (2) knowledge (including tacit knowledge), (3) rationality, (4) equilibrium, (5) innovation, (6) entrepreneurship, and (7) monopoly, on the other hand. Unlike the majority of previous studies, these issues are discussed here mainly through the lens of new institutional economics. Williamson's three-level scheme is used to explain opportunities and constraints for mutually enriching exchange of concepts between different but close approaches in economic research. This paper shows that there are important interconnections and complementarities despite significant differences in objects of study and weak mutual flows of ideas and concepts.

Background: Globalisation has accentuated the need for small-scale agricultural businesses (SSABs) to network horizontally and vertically into world markets. However, the capacity of SSABs to cement foreign alliances to capitalise on business opportunities that the expansion of global markets presents, while simultaneously mitigating against the negative forces of globalisation remains a grey area. Aim: The study sought to contribute to internationalisation literature by examining: (1) the extent to which SSABs’ owner and/or managers in selected South African provinces establish foreign alliances, (2) whether there are any statistically significant differences in SSABs’ performance based on their extent of establishment of foreign alliances. Setting: The setting for this study was Vryburg-Pokwani in the North West and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa, respectively. Method: A survey was conducted on 151 SSAB owner and/or managers in the aforementioned study area. Results: The results revealed that although a majority (51.7%) had some (i.e. few) foreign alliances, 48.3% of SSABs had no foreign alliances at all. The results also demonstrated that the establishment of foreign alliances was positively and statistically significantly related to the performance of SSABs in the Vryburg-Pokwani area. Post-hoc comparisons (Bonferroni) results showed that while SSABs with 1–2 foreign alliances perform better than those with no foreign alliances at all, those SSABs with 6–10 foreign alliances perform better than those with none, 1–2 and 3–5 foreign linkages respectively. Conclusion: Since SSABs with foreign alliances tended to outperform those that were dependent on domestic links, the extent to which the economic benefits derived from internationalisation are reinvested into the businesses for the continued sustenance of businesses needs more rigorous investigation.

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Why has a developing country like Iraq shown a fragile economic development, despite the rosy picture that had been drawn about the potential of the Iraqi economy? To answer this question, an attempt has been made to look at the Iraqi development from the new institutional economic (NIE) perspective. This article contains a brief summary of a Ph.D. dissertation on the economic development of contemporary Iraq. In essence it traces the role of institutions, institutional policies and how the rapid and frequent institutional changes have driven the Iraqi economy for decades. Although applying the NIE to Iraq expands the range of choices of institutions that could be examined, the choices have been narrowed down by focusing on three central issues: agriculture, oil and wars. The picture emerging from the dissertation is one of abrupt and instantaneous institutional changes, through which institutions were repeatedly subject to reshuffle and facing changing circumstances. Consequently these changes have markedly affected the path of economic development in Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In recent years, concern has grown over good practices in the procurement processes in public transport. Although promoting competition by competitive tendering to gain efficiency and increase service quality has gradually become common around the world, the applicability of this model in weak institutional environments has some uncertainties. Drawing from new institutional economics (NIE) literature, transaction cost economics (TCE) approach presents important theoretical insights to comprehend the nature of authority and operator relations by underlining the institutional factors that make such procurements effective or not. We argue in this paper that the extent to which transaction structures are embedded in the institutional framework has a substantial impact on the long-run performance of the public transport contracts. A case study of the experience of Istanbul's public bus transport system, a hybrid regime combining the elements of direct award and tendering and composed of both formal and paratransit transport modes, is proposed to support our theoretical arguments. Our study reveals that all-encompassing contractual solutions which do not take into account the broader institutional environment (culture, norms, policy preferences, property rights etc.) may not work as intended, calling for more hybrid solutions, particularly in weak or developing institutional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was prepared for "The Theory of Share Tenancy: After 50 Years," a conference organized by The Ronald Coase Center for Property Rights Research at the University of Hong Kong, November 24-26, 2017. The paper first appeared in Chinese as a series of column articles in ifeng.com (凤凰网). The author traces the complex intellectual origins of The Theory of Share Tenancy and an adventurous career that followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What The Theory of Share Tenancy did to share tenancy repeats what Coase did to Pigovian tax. The Theory of Share Tenancy pioneered the empirical study of transaction costs and property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomik Yaklaşim is the property of Ekonomik Yaklasim Dernegi (Ekonomik Yaklasim Association) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: This paper aims at contributing to the debate on the future of institutional economics and of the field as a whole by starting from the literature that discusses the relationship between Old‐Original Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. It suggests that the process of reunifying OIE and NIE (and evolutionary economics) prompted by part of the literature could be improved by the contribution of the Cognitive Institutional Economics. The paper follows a two‐stage pathway: first, it frames the debate on the relationships between NIE and the OIE and it concentrates on a subset of the literature that shows that NIE's recent developments complicate the distinction between NIE and OIE, and it explores the possibility that NIE and OIE may merge so that an amalgam of NIE, OIE and Evolutionary Economics becomes the next economic paradigm. Secondly, the paper argues that a step forward in the direction outlined by the literature has been made by CIE, which is a research stream that developed from cross‐fertilization among NIE, OIE and the Hayekian contributions to the analysis of institutions. In the concluding remarks, the possible emergence of a single institutional paradigm is discussed in the light of the literature about change in economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A feature of the Ghana private rental accommodation market is that landlords usually demand advance rent of, in some instances, up to 5 years before signing a tenancy agreement. This is in violation of the 1963 Rent Act and recent initiatives are in the direction of curing this problem in the interest of protecting prospective tenants. However while advance rent is a financial burden this is offset by transaction costs in the housing market. Hence, in this paper and influenced by New Institutional Economics, I argue that it is possible for tenants and landlords to continue to bargain outside the shadow of the law to secure mutually beneficial tenancy agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, many countries across the world have increasingly experienced the collapse of their ecosystems, leading to an elevated increase on the demand for freshwater resources. Botswana is not an exception. The problem of disrupted potable water supply is widespread across the country. However, the physical shortage of water in the country is arguably coupled by lack of effective and efficient water supply and management institutions and water infrastructure. Most of the research on water scarcity in Botswana is mostly inclined towards physical water scarcity, while little is investigated on how the design of institutions for water management in developing countries leads to water scarcity. Furthermore, the premises of most research is neoclassical economics ideas, thereby offering solutions as developing and/or reforming water markets and water pricing mechanisms, among other findings. This paper analyses potable water supply and access in Botswana within a new institutional economics paradigm. The study examines key features of water institutions in Botswana on how they affect water supply and access, applying new institutional economics fundamentals. The study extensively uses various secondary data sources including weather and climate reports, policy documents, maps and charts and survey data, among others. The paper argues that to achieve effective water allocation in Botswana, there is a need to balance social and environmental water resource needs through water policies and other statutory enactments, as well as the crafting of practical management strategies. The country, therefore, requires not only a swift institutional transformation in the water sector, but also needs practical governance structure necessary for implementing integrated water resources management and driving water resources towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For at least 25 years, processes involving structural changes have been growing more and more intense in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with these processes including a decline in the number of small farms. The main aim of this paper is to present the mechanisms involved in, as well as barriers to and costs preventing the exit of farms from agriculture, including those that make it difficult to transfer production resources which are being released to other companies. This research takes the form of an overview and is based on the output of new institutional economics, and on transaction cost and rent-seeking theories in particular. The most frequent difficulties encountered in the process of exit from farming include low profitability of production and the shortage of capital among potential buyers, while the lack of sellers' financial resources and the necessity of incurring expenses related to preparing and finalising the sale of resources held by them (the actual transaction costs related to closing down farms) are frequently overlooked. The most important barriers preventing the complete liquidation of farms are the inherent transaction costs categorised as expenses, as well as the emotional costs and costs of alternatives, which are difficult to evaluate and estimate. The following notions are particularly helpful in explaining barriers to exit from farming: the concept of transaction costs and rent-seeking theory, which are both a part of the stream of thought of new institutional economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Douglass North’s latest works have become central to the current discussion regarding the differences and similarities between new institutional economics (NIE) and original institutional economics (OIE). We seek to contribute to this debate by offering a specific analytical perspective to evaluating North’s contributions. After defining a set of philosophical and methodological principles that specifies OIE, we endeavor to verify if and how North’s work relates to these foundations. We believe that this methodological perspective brings to light a fundamental issue not stressed by earlier analyses: the profound difference between the institutionalisms regarding the role of market order as a mechanism of human sociability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any analysis of the effectiveness of a public policy implies adopting a normative approach, i.e. defining "what should be" and then discussing the best way to achieve it. In the context of ecological compensation, this objective is defined as the achievement of equivalence between the losses related to a project and the gains linked to the compensatory measures. This equivalence is based on a substitution logic, which is the core concern of environmental economics. In this paper, we start by presenting the contributions of this theoretical field to the study of compensation effectiveness. We also highlight its limitations. This led us to give preference to the framework of the new institutional economics which studies the effectiveness of the compensation as a problem of organization of the actors, taking into account their institutional and environmental background. Moreover, we show that the hypotheses underlying the reasoning of environmental economics set the debate in the sphere of weak sustainability while its political reading is more closely related to the sphere of strong sustainability for which the new institutional economics offer original and relevant contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pro-market reforms were expected to increase competition, improve efficiency and reduce agency costs by improving the institutional environment in emerging markets. In an attempt to establish the macro–micro linkages of these goals, this paper aims to analyse the impact of reforms on the performance of firms belonging to different ownership categories. We find that while state owned enterprises have shown signs of convergence, the performance of other domestic firms has stagnated. Meanwhile multinational subsidiaries have shown consistently better performance, raising questions on the motive and direction of reforms. We end by discussing the policy implications and avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politische Vierteljahresschrift is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The World Bank considers itself as “a leader in piloting payments for ecosystem services”. This article explores how the World Bank gradually integrated environmental and legal issues within its strategic framework with a particular focus on its economic theoretical influences. In the early 1990s, the New Institutional Economics became the main influence concerning the analysis of institutional arrangements and legal issues. We distinguish between different branches within the NIE. One remained very close to the mainstream or orthodox economics and tended to focus on private property rights as the central legal issue. We demonstrate that this branch fitted with both the market-friendly policies supported by the WB, and with the theoretical and statistical tools used by the WB's economists. It induced a very specific analysis of legal and institutional issues. It also involved a kind of theoretical path dependency, which influenced a market-oriented analysis of ecosystem services and impoverished the institutional and legal debates concerning the WB's environmental strategy. We suggest that the other branch of the NIE, as developed by the Bloomington School, offered another framework to tackle environmental issues regarding the diversity of institutional and legal arrangements. We conclude on the ambiguous use of economic theory for addressing environmental and legal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ready-made-garment (RMG) production for sale in the EU and USA is a key source of economic development for Bangladesh. The 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza revealed worker safety and other social issues in RMG factories in Bangladesh, showing that formal, top-down approaches to these problems, including corporate codes-of-conduct and reforms in Bangladeshi labor laws, have little effect. Supply chain sustainability is a key issue for business, government and civil society. Satisfactory theoretical approaches to promoting social sustainability in supply chains are lacking. A case study using qualitative document analysis identifies the key institutional factors related to social sustainability in the Bangladeshi RMG industry, with a modified version of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework as an analytical frame. Key elements of other frameworks for social sustainability are discussed in terms of how well the IAD framework captures those concepts, and how employing the IAD could enhance supply chain analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a number of illegal activities operated under the radar of conventional analysis have taken place in Brazil. This study proposes an Extended Keynesian Model in order to understand this phenomenon, a model that explains that crises happen because of the replacement of productive activities with unproductive and destructive activities. The model is used here to examine Brazil's socioeconomic history since the institution of the economic plan that established the actual currency "Real" (R$), concluding that as the plan's concern was predominantly with stabilization and not growth, productive activities have never been promoted on an appropriate scale. This has paved the way for the advancement of unproductive and destructive activities which have ultimately led to the country's increasing degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The costs incurred in the design and implementation of planning policy instruments are not always considered sufficiently. In order to increase the efficacy of planning policy instruments, these transaction costs need to be taken into account. While such transaction costs are expected to vary according to their institutional design and arrangements, up to now there has been no systematic research concerned with how planners should consider transaction costs, and other institutional aspects, as evaluation criteria in planning policy analysis. This paper investigates how, and in which stages, these costs can be included in planning policy design and analysis. Using the literature of transaction costs and new institutional economics, this paper proposes a framework for integrating these costs into evaluating planning policy instruments. This framework consists of different factors that influence transaction costs in designing and implementing a planning policy instrument. Although some researchers have discussed the influence of factors concerning the characteristics of transactions and transactors, there has been limited consideration of the importance of factors related to the characteristics of a policy. This paper argues that policy characteristics, such as, simplicity, age of the policy, precision of the policy, policy approach, public involvement and participation, and policy credibility and consistency, can affect transaction costs in any policy. Therefore, the paper concludes that, in addition to transaction and transactor characteristics, a ‘policy characteristics’ category should be included to emphasise the importance of policy selection and design in transaction costs of a planning policy instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]