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

Abstract

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.