Beyond ‘empty’ forms of formalization: The credibility of a renewed attempt at forest titling in Southwest China

Urbanization and urban land use efficiency in Ethiopia : remote sensing and institutional-based analysis

“…Because, empty institutions do not shape actors' behaviour, which is indispensable for meaningful policy outcomes (Ho, 2016(Ho, , 2005Krul and Ho, 2020;Polski and Ostrom, 1999). Within the context of the institutional credibility thesis, we examined whether urban land policies as a whole or some of their components can be categorized as empty (symbolic) institutions.…”

“…If formal institutions become non-credible, actors resort to informal institutions (Ho, 2018). As a result, there is an increasing call from scholars to focus more on institutional functions than sheer forms (Chen, 2020;Dimitrov, 2020;Ho, 2018Ho, , 2014Krul and Ho, 2020;Zheng and Ho, 2020).…”

“…Empty institutions, however, do not have a meaningful impact on actors' conduct (Ho, 2005). They are a 'symbolic set of rules' and often "ineffective and ignored" (Ho, 2016), with literally no consequences if disregarded (Krul and Ho, 2020).…”

“…An empty institution, according to Krul and Ho (2020), is "a symbolic token that remains inconsistent with its stated objectives". This may be because most rules exist only on paper or are 'an empty shell' (Ho, 2005).…”

“…This may be because most rules exist only on paper or are 'an empty shell' (Ho, 2005). The gap between what is formally specified and what is actually implemented is an indicator of empty institutions, Krul and Ho (2020) argue. Though empty institutions are usually ineffective, we may not find completely contested or completely ineffective empty institutions 31 , Ho (2014) argue.…”