Institutional quality is a key indicator of the effectiveness of national governance, which directly affects economic growth, social equity and stability, as well as the enhancement of national competitiveness. Based on 3039 articles on institutional quality in Web of Science database from 2005 to 2024, we systematically analyzed its evolution, hot topics and prospects by using CiteSpace literature visualization tool. It is found that the research on institutional quality has gone through four phases since 1999, namely, the period of germination and accumulation (1999-2013), the period of slow start (2014-2017), the period of rapid development (2018-2019), and the period of comprehensive deepening and activation (2020-2024), and the heat of the research has increased significantly since 2018. The core topics cover the economic growth effect of institutional quality, the advantages and experiences of institutional quality in China, the synergistic mechanism of carbon emissions and environmental policies, the interaction between human resources and institutional quality, and the path of corruption governance and institutional quality improvement. Frontier areas focus on the dynamic interaction between the digital economy and institutional quality, the exploration of the mechanism of synergistic development between environment and institutions, and the far-reaching impact of institutional quality on gender equality and the well-being of families and children. These studies provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the promotion of global sustainable development, as well as useful reference for China’s institutional reform and participation in global governance.
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