New Developments in Case Study Methods for Institutional Economics

Andrew Bennett ()
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Andrew Bennett: Georgetown University

Chapter 40 in Handbook of New Institutional Economics, 2025, pp 1059-1087 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The present chapter reviews the advantages of case studies in the study of economic institutions and outlines two new case study methods: typological theorizing and formal Bayesian process tracing. Case studies have many comparative advantages relative to quantitative and experimental methods, including strengths in analyzing path dependency, equifinality, high-order interactions, anomalies, substantively important cases, complex concepts that are hard to measure, and causal mechanisms and processes. These advantages are a good fit for institutional economists’ interest in big picture questions, critical junctures, and complex concepts. The chapter introduces and illustrates typological theorizing and formal Bayesian process tracing using the example of Didac Queralt’s Pawned States (2022), a study of state building and international finance in the global south in the 1900s. The chapter concludes that wider and more rigorous use of case study methods can contribute greatly to new institutional economics and the field of economics more generally.

Keywords: Case study; Methodology; Process tracing; Typology; Bayes; Bayesian; Institutional economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-50810-3_40

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-50810-3_40

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