Institutional change is often costly for incumbents, making it hard to achieve.

Evidence

Institutional change is often costly for current political incumbents. This raises the possi- bility that they may try to design new institutional provisions (or attempt “institutional innovations”) in order to create stability, in the process solidifying their privileged position. — Daron Acemoglu, Georgy Egorov, and Konstantin Sonin, Institutional Change and Institutional…, 695

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the reader’s economics-of-institutions notes on incumbents blocking reform (e.g., Ghanaian chiefs resisting abolition).