摘要：The paper presents an overview of methodological approaches to the study of the influence of institutions on macroeconomic indicators characterizing long-term economic growth, although other indicators that are influenced by institutions can be identified: economic growth rate, GDP per capita, saving rate, and total factor productivity. The article analyzes the research of leading scientists conducted within the framework of the institutional theory that explains global inequality and some of its features. In addition to the institutional theory, two more theories compete to explain the causes of global inequality: geographical theory and the theory of cultural influence. Both of these theories are unpromising from the point of view of practical applicability, since geographical, climatic factors, cultural characteristics are not subject to the influence of economic policy within reasonable time limits. Institutional theory explains the inequality of countries by differences in their formal legal and informal social norms that govern the behavior of individuals and structure social interactions. The growing volume of empirical work of this kind has shown that institutions should be considered in the context of alternative approaches (culture and social capital, human capital), alternative econometric methods and alternative strategies for identifying the influence of institutions on macroeconomic indicators (long-term economic growth).
