Stage-Variant Institutions
Term
Stage-Variant Institutions
Idea level
Concept
Definition
Stage-Variant Institutions, coined by Yuen Yuen Ang, means that the institutional forms and strategies that work at one stage of development may not work at another. Within Ang’s theory of Coevolutionary Development, institutions that build markets in early, start-up economies—often by repurposing normatively weak or unorthodox arrangements—differ qualitatively from the modern institutions that preserve markets in advanced economies, such as impartial courts, technocratic bureaucracies, and formal private property rights.
Sources
First articulation (conceptual naming):
Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Polytunity: The Future of Development.” The Ideas Letter (2025).
Earlier articulation (concept present, not yet named):
Ang, Yuen Yuen. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Chapters 1, 5, 6 and 7.
Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Do Weberian Bureaucracies Lead to Markets or Vice Versa? A Coevolutionary Approach to Development.” In States in the Developing World (2017).
Theoretical synthesis:
Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm.” World Politics (2024).
Genealogy
[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)
→ [Pillar] Adaptive Political Economy (APE)
→ [Theory] Coevolutionary Development
→ [Concept] Stage-Variant Institutions
→ [Concept] Market-Building vs. Market-Preserving
→ [Application: Development] Applications to China, Europe, the U.S., and Nigeria (How China Escaped the Poverty Trap)
[Insert illustrative table from book]
Quote
“In other words, [Coevolutionary Development] is a stage-variant theory of institutions. What works for advanced economies may not work for start-up economies, and vice versa. We know plenty about the ‘good institutions’ that support advanced economies (impartial courts, technocratic bureaucracies, formal private property rights), but the canons have been largely blind to the institutions and methods that work for the start-ups.”
— Ang, “Polytunity: The Future of Development” (2025)
Concept Constellation
Across Ang’s work, Stage-Variant Institutions consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:
Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development / Endogeneity / Non-linear causation (problem)
Using What You Have
Fairy Tales of Western Development (decolonizing critique)
Related Descriptive Phrases (Non-Canonical)
These phrases are commonly used to describe aspects of “Coevolutionary Development: China” when the keyword is not used.
Causal inference and solutions to inherent endogeneity
Form and function of institutions that matters differ across context
Root causes vary
In contrast to: Good institutions as the primary or root cause of development