Abstract
It  is  often  stated  that  globalization  makes  a  ‘smaller’  world  by  institutional  conver-gence. Economic orders become alike across the world. This article addresses insti-tutional  change  triggered  by  the  global  financial  crisis  of  2008/2009  and  challenges this  general  conviction  of  worldwide  convergence  by  comparing  developments  in emerging markets in Europe and Asia. The rise of emerging markets, both in Eastern Europe and in Asia, entailed encom-passing institutional reform. In analysing the extent to which there is institutional con-vergence, the article follows the approach of ‘Varieties of Capitalism’. This approach distinguishes two ‘ideal’ types of capitalism: a liberal market economy and a coordi-nated  market  economy.  In  liberal  market  economies,  firms  are  primarily  driven  by competition,  whereas  in  coordinated  market  economies  firms  also  coordinate  with other actors by strategic interaction. The basic premise is that countries with a specif-ic  set  of  institutions  develop  institutional  complementarities.  Therefore,  considering institutional  change,  liberal  market  economies  and  coordinated  market  economies are  expected  to  respond  in  different  ways  to  external  shocks,  such  as  the  global  fi-nancial crisis. Being  aware  of  the  pitfalls  that  the  approach  suffers  from  by  ‘simply’  pinpointing countries on a broad continuum, the article argues that the emerging market econo-mies in Europe are on the liberal side of the scale. On top of that, it builds the argu-ment  of  a  tentative  convergence  towards  further  liberal  institutional  design. With  re-spect to emerging markets in Asia, another development is observed. There is con-verging  institutional  change  towards  coordinated  market  economies  characterized with  strong  state  influence  and  an  imperative  bureaucracy.  The  expected  conver-gence in the two groups of emerging market economies in Europe and Asia leads to the conviction of divergence between the groups.  

Keywords:  Globalization, Institutional Economics, Varieties of Capitalism, Emerging Markets