This book offers a strong contribution to the growing field of institutional economics, going beyond the question of "why institutions matter" and examines the ways in which different types of institutions are conducive to the enhancement of competitiveness and economic development.The first part deals with the issues of whether or not, and to what extent, different political institutional arrangements are conducive to economic development. The second part deals with issues of specific nature of institutional impact on the economic development of Korea and China. The third part assesses the state of institutional economics and speculates about the future direction of institutional economics. The book tries to make a contribution by introducing a variety of perspectives'”constitutional political economy, public choice, Austrian economics, as well as the New Institutional economics'”in analyzing the role of institutions on economic development.