An important aspect of this NEO wave is an attempt to theorize about the
organizational design of international institutions rather than treating them as
black boxes. The assumption is that states do not simply follow the dictates of
formal organizations - rather, they create institutions with specific design
features intended to be the most effective and focus on the variety of
institutional forms that result. In their study of international trade liberalization
over time, Yarbrough and Yarbrough (1992, p. 19) show that ‘[i]nstitutional
variety ... (reflects the efficacy of alternate governance structures for different
types of trade transactions in different political and economic environments’.