Der chinesische Kultur- und Wirtschaftsraum als Herausforderung für die Institutionenökonomik

Abstract

One of the unresolved issues in modern institutional economics concerns the relationship between formal and underlying informal institutions. The analytical difficulty arises from the fact that informal institutions are not directly accessible to observation. They have to be disentangled by theoretical approach which
explains how culture, history andpath dependence shape the institutional systems. This article presents typological approach for identifying the impact of these variables. The approach is then applied to the Chinese cultural and economic area. It is shown that China represents unique economic and social order which is dominantly structured by informal institutions. Finally the article suggests some open tasks and issues ofAsian studiesfrom the perspective of
institutional economics.