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This research delves into the Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) framework, distinguishing between coordinated and liberal market economies, and examines how institutional environments impact industrial specialization and policy preferences of firms and workers.
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Comparative Institutions and Globalization Anne Wren (Stanford University) With critique by Tom Kenyon (Princeton University & IFC)
Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) • Can use VOC literature to derive policy preferences of firms and workers • VOC predicts existence of ‘complementarities’ across national economic sub-systems • Distinguishes two principal variants (coordinated and liberal market economies)
Institutions and Specialization • Different institutional environments favor different types of industrial specialization: • CMEs: favor long-term investment in skills and incremental innovation (autos, capital goods, engines) • LMEs: favor flexibility and radical innovation (software, biotech, telecoms)
Operationalization? • How do we tell what a CME/LME-type firm looks like? • How do we measure ‘radical’ vs. ‘incremental’ innovation (Taylor 2004) • Sector, technological/skill intensity or stage of product cycle? • How do we tell what a CME/LME economy looks like?
Grounds for Skepticism • CME/LME distinction questionable: • H&S categories do not hold up: countries switch over time & by organizational sub-type (e.g. Ireland) • H & S overstate extent of complementarities, see trend away from coordination since 1980 • Need alternative indicator of coordination: continuous? by institutional sub-grouping?
To Sum Up • VOC approach promising, but problematic to operationalize • Trade-off between theoretical sophistication and cross-national scope of application • Think more carefully about underlying complementarities outside OECD • Develop cross-national core and regional modules? (e.g. WB ICA)