This book represents an important next step in the new institutional economics. Using this perspective, it undertakes a thorough re-examination of the problems of development. - Barry R. Weingast, Stanford University, US Institutions, Economic Performance, and the Visible Hand is a wide ranging, well-written, and provocative contribution to the study of political and economic organization. Ashok Chakravarti advances arguments and interpretations that are both interesting and, often, controversial. Although I find myself ''arguing'' with many of them, this is one of the many virtues of the book. I recommend the book to others who have an interest in institutional economics - why it is important, where it has been, and where it is going. - Oliver E. Williamson, Nobel Laureate in Economics, University of California, Berkeley, US This is an ambitious and wide-ranging book, which seeks to overthrow the minimalist view of the role of institutions in economic systems contained in the standard economic model, and instead advocates a more active institution-building effort to promote the development of poor countries. This important contribution is to review and consolidate the themes and issues that emerge from a very large literature on the subject of institutions and economic development, and to coherently formulate hypotheses relating institutions to economic performance. This should be useful to a wide range of scholars. --- John Toye, University of Oxford, UK
