A pragmatic institutional economics approach to economic development and institutions: The case of Colombia

The purpose of this study is to reassess and to reconstruct the theoretical approach on the relationship between institutions and economic development from the Original Institutional Economics perspective and Pragmatic standpoint, and to apply it to the case study of Colombia. Using a Veblenian approach and inspired by the theory of institutional adjustment developed by John Fagg Foster, this work examines three regions in Colombia including the Caribbean, the Antioquia and Valle-Cauca region showing the relationships between institutions and development since the Conquest up to date. This work aims to demonstrate that institutions are not just determined by culture but by a complex systemic relationship between economic structures, technology, geographical conditions and also a decisive role for individual and collective agency, a process that is illustrated through the examination of the evolutionary process of the selected regions of the nation. At the end a set of strategic policies of an adequate process of institutional change are proposed.