Institutional aspects of new comparative economy: Czech republic and European union

Abstract

The study focuses on evaluation of institutional quality in EuropeanUnion countries and its possible impact on economic performance andcompetitiveness. The text stems from the theoretical framework of newinstitutional economics, especially historical and comparativeinstitutionalism, and it bases on the concept of good governance. Thesource of the evaluation is the scheme of the World Bank GovernanceMatters, supplemented with research of other institutions working withindividual institutional characteristics. Authors evaluate followingcharacteristics - voice and accountability, political stability,government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control ofcorruption, which together form aggregate indicator of institutionalquality. Old member countries of European Union (EU-15) are classifiedinto different models of capitalism according to their. differentinstitutional quality. Institutional changes in new member countries(EU-10, eventually EU-8) in period 1996-2004 illustrate bothinstitutional adjustment of postcommunist countries and dynamics ofthese changes and their convergence to different types of capitalism.