Disorganization or Self-Organization : The Emergence of Business Associations in a Transition Economy

Recanatini, Francesca ; Ryterman, Randi

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    BUSINESS ASSOCIATION;    BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS;    CENTRAL PLANNING;    CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2539
RP-ID  :  WPS2539

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The transition from plan to marketprovides a rare opportunity for insight into the endogenousdevelopment of economic institutions. Economic activitiesunder the Soviet regime were coordinated by a centralauthority. Soviet coordinating mechanisms were disruptedduring the transition period, leading to an increase infirms' transactions costs. Blanchard and Kremer (1997),among others, emphasize the negative impact of this"disorganization" on output behavior at thebeginning of the transition. Although their argument iscorrect, the authors believe that their work and similaranalyses stop short of fully characterizing the transitionby concentrating only on reform's disruptive effects.The authors start where the earlier work ends, examining thebusiness associations that emerged spontaneously in responseto the transition's challenges. They provide empiricalevidence that institutions that help coordinate productionand trade emerge spontaneously in a widely"disorganized" environment. Using a largelyunexplored set of firm-level data, they document theemergence of business associations at the beginning of thetransition and provide evidence that these new coordinatinginstitutions mitigated the initial decline in output.Building on the growing literature on complexity andtransaction costs, they interpret the emergence of theseinformal institutions as the firms' rational attempt tocoordinate activities in a decentralized economy. In otherwords, the creation of complex organizations such asassociations is the spontaneous result of a natural tendencyin every system to create order at the edge of chaos.Business associations are more likely to emerge where thereis disorder to provide their members with stability,coordination, and the information needed to improve performance.