IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/106381.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Societal Violence: The Role of Formal and Informal Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Sherbaz, Sadia
  • Khan, Karim

Abstract

Violence is a recourse towards achieving particular objectives. In its most extreme form, violence deprives the victim of the most basics of human rights, i.e. the right to live and bodily integrity. Thus, violence is undesirable and needs to be prevented. Formal and informal institutions are structured in societies to govern such an undesirable behavior. In this study, we want to assess the role played by the formal and informal institutions in the mitigation or exacerbation of societal violence. In addition, we want to evaluate the implications of informal institutions as far as the relationship between formal institutions and societal violence is concerned. We take three indicators of societal violence, namely, homicides, gender-based violence and violence against children. We find that while overall occurrence of societal violence is more effectively mitigated by informal institutions; formal institutions are more effective in mitigating violence targeted towards women and children. These results signify the importance of both formal and informal institutions in prevention of the violence in society. Alternatively, institutional reforms are the key to mitigating societal violence.

Suggested Citation

  • Sherbaz, Sadia & Khan, Karim, 2021. "Societal Violence: The Role of Formal and Informal Institutions," MPRA Paper 106381, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106381
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106381/1/MPRA_paper_106381.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claudia Williamson, 2009. "Informal institutions rule: institutional arrangements and economic performance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 371-387, June.
    2. Tauchen, Helen V & Witte, Ann Dryden & Long, Sharon K, 1991. "Domestic Violence: A Nonrandom Affair," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(2), pages 491-511, May.
    3. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Weingast,Barry R., 2013. "Violence and Social Orders," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107646995.
    4. Eduard Bomhoff & Grace Lee, 2012. "Tolerance and economic growth revisited: a note," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 487-494, December.
    5. Cragg, John G. & Donald, Stephen G., 1993. "Testing Identifiability and Specification in Instrumental Variable Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 222-240, April.
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Do Institutions Cause Growth?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 271-303, September.
    7. Claudia R. Williamson & Carrie B. Kerekes, 2011. "Securing Private Property: Formal versus Informal Institutions," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 537-572.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karim Khan & Sadia Sherbaz, 2020. "Entertaining Douglass North: Political Violence and Social Order," PIDE-Working Papers 2020:174, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    2. Ryan H. Murphy, 2019. "The state economic modernity index: an index of state building, state size and scope, and state economic power," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 73-101, March.
    3. Jamie Bologna Pavlik & Andrew T. Young, 2020. "Medieval European traditions in representation and state capacity today," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 133-186, June.
    4. Yasir Khan & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "The Impact of Formal and Informal Institutions on Economic Performance: A Cross-Country Analysis," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:130, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    5. Russell S. Sobel & Christopher J. Coyne, 2011. "Cointegrating Institutions: The Time-Series Properties of Country Institutional Measures," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 111-134.
    6. Daniel D. Bonneau & Joshua C. Hall & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Institutional implant and economic stagnation: a counterfactual study of Somalia," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 483-503, March.
    7. Christopher J. Coyne & Claudia R. Williamson, 2012. "Purpose – This paper seeks to analyze empirically the net effect of trade openness on “economic culture”, measured by indicators of trust, respect, level of self-determination, and obedience. Openness," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 1(4), pages 22-49, April.
    8. Claudia Williamson & Rachel Mathers, 2011. "Economic freedom, culture, and growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 313-335, September.
    9. Neyapti, Bilin, 2013. "Modeling institutional evolution," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-16.
    10. Malavika Nair & Martha Njolomole, 2020. "Microfinance, entrepreneurship and institutional quality," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(1), pages 137-148, January.
    11. Judit Kapas, 2017. "How Cultural Values Affect Economic Growth: A Critical Assessment Of The Literature," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 26(1), pages 265-285, june.
    12. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055.
    13. Asma Salman, 2018. "Micro-Finance: A Driver for Entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Silvio Manuel Da Rocha Brito (ed.), Entrepreneurship - Trends and Challenges, IntechOpen.
    14. Jamie Bologna Pavlik & Andrew T. Young, 2021. "The legacy of representation in medieval Europe for incomes and institutions today," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(1), pages 414-448, July.
    15. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    16. Rok Spruk & Mitja Kovac, 2018. "Inefficient Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 9(2).
    17. Simon Hartmann & Thomas Lindner & Jakob Müllner & Jonas Puck, 2022. "Beyond the nation-state: Anchoring supranational institutions in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1282-1306, August.
    18. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    19. Michelle Albert Vachris & Justin P. Isaacs, 2017. "The Role of Cultural Values in the Formation and Survival of Pro-Growth Institutions," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Spring 20), pages 89-113.
    20. Braunfels, Elias, 2016. "Further Unbundling Institutions," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 13/2016, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Formal Institutions; Informal Institutions; Societal Violence; Homicides; Gender-based Violence; Violence against Children;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106381. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.