Abstract

Political scientists are increasingly using experiments to study the relationship between institutions and political and economic outcomes. Institutions are the “rules and procedures that structure social interaction by constraining and enabling actors’ behavior” (Helmke and Levitsky 2006: 5). During more than two decades of renewed interest in institutions in political science, researchers have sought answers to broad questions, like: How do institutions affect outcomes such as growth and development, participation, accountability, and policy selection? Which institutions, and what elements of institutional design, matter for these outcomes? How do formal institutions interact with informal institutions? How can weak political institutions be strengthened? And what are the causes of institutional change?