U.S.-Tunisia Cooperative Research: New Institutional Economics and Economic Development

南加州大学Jeffrey B. Nugent教授领导了一个关于突尼斯新制度经济学（NIE）和经济发展的合作研究项目，该项目由南加州大学和突尼斯突尼斯大学的学者参与。他的主要合作者是Mustapha K. Nabli教授，他是突尼斯大学经济系项目对应小组的负责人。NIE分析了制度对经济行为的影响，并解释了制度随时间变化的原因，而传统的经济理论忽略了制度。考虑到经济分析中制度的影响，与其他形式的分析相比，得出了不同的结论，NIE改变了对宏观经济学、劳动经济学、医疗保险、军事采购和其他经济主题的研究结果的解释。NIE在体制变化可能是作出经济结论的一个重要因素的情况下特别有用，例如在发展中国家。尽管具有潜力，NIE并未被大量用于描述发展中国家的经济。这是纽金特博士和纳布利博士的研究小组感兴趣的话题，他们在突尼斯做了几项研究。由于其不断变化的制度结构，该国为NIE分析提供了很好的案例材料。这两个研究小组已经交换了几年的研究生和研究访问。该奖项的支持将使研究人员能够聚集在一起，综合他们过去工作的结果，并计划他们的下一步。该奖项将资助美国研究人员访问突尼斯，与突尼斯同行举行会议，并资助突尼斯人访问南加州大学。Drs。纽金特和纳布利计划出版一卷，总结他们的工作，并就具体主题准备文章。拟议中的合作将允许美国调查人员使用在美国不易获得的海外数据源

Professor Jeffrey B. Nugent, University of Southern California, leads a collaborative research project on New Institutional Economics (NIE) and Economic Development in Tunisia involving scholars at the University of Southern California and the University of Tunis, Tunisia. His main collaborator is Professor Mustapha K. Nabli, who heads the project's counterpart group at the Economics Department, University of Tunis. NIE analyzes the effect of institutions on economic behavior and explains why institutions change over time, whereas traditional economic theory overlooks institutions. Considering the influence of institutions in economic analysis leads to different conclusions compared to other forms of analysis and NIE has changed interpretations of findings in macroeconomics, labor economics, health insurance, military procurement, and other economic topics. NIE is especially useful in situations where institutional change is likely to be an important factor in drawing economic conclusions, such as in developing countries. Despite its potential, NIE has not been greatly used to describe the economics of developing countries. This is the topic of interest for Dr. Nugent's and Dr. Nabli's group, and they have done several studies in Tunisia. The country offers good case material for NIE analysis, because of its changing institutional structures. The two research groups have exchanged graduate students and research visits for several years. The support from this award will allow the researchers to come together to synthesize the results of their past work and to plan their next steps. The award will fund visits of the American researchers to a meeting in Tunis with their Tunisian counterparts and return visits by Tunisians to the University of Southern California. Drs. Nugent and Nabli plan to publish a volume summarizing their work and to prepare articles on specific topics. The proposed cooperation allows the U.S. investigators to use data sources abroad that are not easily available to them in the U.S.