This essay analyzes the ontological structure of institutional and other social entities in virtual environments. The emphasis is on institutional reality, which consists of entities (objects, events, etc.) like money, contracts and chess pieces, that are constituted in part through collective agreements. It is studied how institutional entities are constructed in virtual environments, how they...

BACKGROUND Encouraging institutional birth is an important component of reducing maternal mortality in low-resource settings. This study aims to identify and understand the determinants of persistently low institutional birth in rural Nepal, with the goal of informing future interventions to reduce high rates of maternal mortality. METHODS Postpartum women giving birth in the catchment area p...

This paper shows that historical variables can explain a significant part of discretionary government spending across countries. We argue that these results provide evidence in favor of Besley and Persson’s (2009) hypothesis that institutional quality or state capacity is historically determined and further that institutional quality determines, in part, economic policy.

Since its origins in the 1970s and eighties, Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) research has moved away from its early emphasis on organization-level dynamics of profit-making, reinvestment, and labor process (within their broader institutional setting). Recent authors have begun to explore ways of renewing this emphasis. This paper proposes using the theory of “organizational capabilities”...

JVlANY GRADUATE PROGRAMS in hospital administration do not have courses in multi-institutional structure, but refer only tangentially to this expanding segment of our healthcare delivery system. The administrative residency offers an excellent opportunity to study multi-institutional systems from within. This article shall define a prototype for the residency experience within a particular type...