A Microeconomic Analysis of Institutions

Ola Olsson

No 25, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This survey paper has three themes; a microeconomic analysis of institutions, an institutional analysis of microeconomics, and a discussion on the scope for an "institutional microeconomics" that takes insights from psychology and older institutional theory into account. Institutions are defined as the long-run rules of the economy that have the character of public goods and whose main function is the reduction of transaction costs. The institutional requirements for the Walrasian equilibrium and for a cooperative solution in a Prisoner’s Dilemma-like game, are thoroughly analyzed. The paper briefly surveys the main results from the OIE and NIE-schools and discusses the possibilities of an interdisciplinarily oriented institutional microeconomics.

Keywords: institutions; microeconomics; Walrasian equilibrium; game theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D23 D70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2000-06-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-ind
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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