What is the Credibility Thesis?

The Credibility Thesis holds two critical implications in relation to Institutional Form and Persistence:

” Institutional function presides over form; the former can be expressed by its credibility, that is, the perceived social support at a given time and space.” See P. Ho, “The ‘Credibility Thesis’ and its Application to Property Rights: (In)secure Land Tenure and Social Welfare in China“, Land Use Policy, 2014, 40, Sept., p.14.

“The Credibility Thesis posits that “institutions that exist and persist, fulfill a function, and are credible; otherwise they would have fallen into disuse or shifted into other types.” See P. Ho, “An endogenous theory of property rights: opening the black box of institutions”, Journal of Peasant Studies, 2016, 43/6, p. 1126.