When we place goodness of fit at the heart of analyses, it is not even apt to think about market-building institutions as merely “second-best” or “good enough” variants of market-preserving institutions. This is because each bundle of institutions fits different functions. For example, would we think about hammers as second-best screwdrivers? We need hammers to hit nails and screwdrivers to loosen and tighten screws. Switch their uses around and these instruments cease to be useful. In the context of development, the methods that spark early growth may be supremely ill-suited to the tasks of
...more