Institutions have both positive and negative effects on economic performance. The theoretical and empirical understanding of the roles played by institutions, norms and culture in the functioning of markets still is limited. This book contributes to a better understanding of the role played by institutions in economic life and to more balanced and better founded policy decisions related to the (re)structuring of industrial economies in response to the structural changes - internationalisation of the economies, the advances in information and communication technology and the ageing of populations - they all are confronted with.