Philippe Dulbecco

Towards an Austrian Theory of the Firm

In this contribution, our aim is to melt in the same analytical framework the Austrian conceptions, on the one hand, of the structure of production, and on the other hand, of the dynamics of knowledge; and then to propose a renewed theory of the firm and more generally of the analysis of the coordination of activities of the firms. In the debate concerning the new theories of the firm, we show that it is necessary to take into account the processual dimension of both production and knowledge in order to analyse as a process the coordination of firms plans.

Financial Liberalization and Stability of the Financial System in Emerging Markets: The Institutional Dimension of Financial Crises

Emerging economies, which have since the end of the 1980s implemented a process of financial liberalization, are confronted at the same time with a banking crises. The latter highlights the role played by the institutional framework in the process of financial liberalization. The objective of this paper is to go through the usual alternatives of too much/ too little market in order to explain that the success of any liberalization process relies on the complementarity between market and intermediation. Institutions, defined as rule-following behaviour, represented the cornerstone of such an evolution. The point is that the solution to financial instability is to be found within the institutional dynamics in which emerging economies may benefit from intermediation in order to enforce the market process.

Global Governance versus Domestic Governance: What Roles for International Institutions?

Since the late 1980s, emerging economies are striking by a recurrent instability of their financial system. The main lesson is that the domestic institutional infrastructure represents a critical condition necessary for successful liberalisation. This critical condition refers to what we agree to call the ‘domestic governance’ approach. The traditional answer provided in order to deal with this instability refers to the so-called ‘new international financial infrastructure’. This initiative seems insufficient because it does not take into account the degree of adaptability of the prevailing domestic institutions. The purpose of this article is to propose an analytical framework aimed at studying the relationship between ‘domestic governance’ and ‘global governance’. The challenge becomes to organise a multi-speed financial liberalisation process in which capital controls could play a decisive role.

The Dynamics of the Institutional Change and the Market Economy: Understanding Contemporaneous Market Development Processes

The Austrian theory of institutions shows the particularity of being tied into a market process analysis. If such a specificity gave rise to a great number of analytical as well as methodological or epistemological contributions, its empirical dimension has been neglected to the benefit of the so-called Institutional works. The aim of my contribution is to come back to this untapped potential in order to exhibit the operational nature of Austrian analyses of institutions, particularly those of Lachmann. The objective here is to establish, through an appropriate temporal articulation of different institutions, the conditions for a harmonious development of market processes. I particularly show the great benefit of such a framework in order to, on one side, offer some explanations of the recent financial crisis faced by the emerging economies, and on the other side, to understand the specificity as well as the coherence of the Chinese economic transition.