A Political Economy Approach to the Grammar of Institutions: Theory and Methods

Abstract

This article proposes a political economy approach to the grammar of institutions, by building on the study of contracts in economics. First, I argue that more attention needs to be paid to the costs and benefits of institutions, thus allowing researchers to derive empirically testable hypotheses on the evolution of institutions. In this vein, the role of conditions in studying the grammar of institutions becomes central. Second, I propose, validate, and test an innovative method to study the grammar, based on computational linguistics. This method allows extracting the elements of the grammar in an automated and unsupervised manner, paving the way to large- N analyses. In so doing, this article seeks to bridge the gap between public policy and political economy.