This introductory chapter offers an overview of the book. It sets out the book's subject, namely the effects of different forms of market internationalisation on decisions about national institutions. It also seeks to integrate internationalisation of markets and policy making through its ‘policy analysis’ framework. That framework seeks to avoid an over-narrow focus on international capital/trade flows and concentration on socio-economic interests driven by economic efficiency that weaken existing analyses of internationalisation. Instead, it gives due weight to policy making at both the international and domestic levels, underlines the role of governments and public officials in forming and leading reform coalitions, and shows how policy forms of internationalisation were influential because of their role in the policy process. The introduction ends by setting out the book's research design (five sectors chosen due to variations in forms of internationalisation compared across four countries that represent different ‘varieties of capitalism’) and summarises the following chapters.
Keywords: economic institutions, policy analysis, research design