Data and Code for Institution Building without Commitment

We propose a theory of gradualism in the implementation of good policies, suitable for environments featuring time consistency. We downplay the role of the initial period by allowing agents both to wait for future agents to start equilibrium play and to restart theequilibrium by ignoring past history. The allocation gradually transits towards one that weighs both short- and long-term concerns, stopping short of the Ramsey outcome but greatly improving upon Markovian equilibria. We use the theory to account for the slowemergence of both climate policies and the reduction of global tariff rates.