Institutional Transfer and Catch-Up Development

To modernise both an economy and society, as well as to boost competitiveness in a given country, institutions from successful countries are transferred to less successful ones At the same time, local political actors decide to a large extent whether the transfer and expansion of institutions will succeed For they alone have the cultural knowledge to change institutions in a way so that they fit cultural practices in a new environment This is seen in a comparison of the introduction of the social market economy in West Germany after 1945 and the carrying out of market reforms in Russia after 1990