Rational Institutional Design of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Bounded Rationality Embedded in A Change-through-Continuity Characteristic

Sammanfattning: As a Chinese initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a newly established multilateral financial institution which addresses the daunting infrastructure demands across Asia and furthers interconnectivity and economic development through advancement in infrastructure and other productive sectors. AIIB is envisaged to be built into a first-class multilateral development institution with 21st century governance, to cooperate with and be complementary to existing financial institutions. Therefore, this thesis aspires to capture an in-depth understanding of the AIIB by answering the questions ‘what is the characteristic of the institutional design of AIIB, in comparison with Bretton Woods institutions and Asian Development Bank (ADB), and what corresponding role China has played in contributing to its institutional design feature?’ This thesis relies primarily on the official founding documents of the institutions, applies thematic analysis as data analysis method, and further employs key concepts from rational design on international institutions including membership, scope, centralization and voting, to interpret and analyze data. This thesis finds out that change-through continuity is a recurring characteristic of the AIIB’s institutional design, in which China being a revisionist reformist has played a significant role in shaping its characteristic. These findings contribute to the conclusion that the change-through-continuity characteristic of AIIB’s institutional design is a manifestation of bounded rationality.