Success of Path Dependence Through Perpetuation of Failure During Reform

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to extend current debates about path dependence and to contribute to scholarship by addressing inadequately researched aspects of path dependence: the role of individuals in sustaining long-standing 'inefficient' institutions; the balance of 'path following' and 'path violation'; and path dependent resource utilisation, not resource allocation. These matters are illustrated through and discussed in the context of 'asset-stripping' and 'rent-seeking' in the 2000s and during the earlier, illegal privatisation of state-owned assets in 1990s Bulgaria.