The Approach of Institutional Economics

Geoffrey Hodgson ()

Journal of Economic Literature, 1998, vol. 36, issue 1, 166-192

Abstract: This paper assesses the "old" institutional economics, it emphasizes the importance of key "old" institutionalist themes concerning the necessity of habits and rules, and the role of institutions. A problem in the alternative theoretical program of the "new" institutionalism is the untenability of its assumption of an original, institution-free, "market" or "state of nature." Even optimizing behavior requires the prior existence of habits and rules. Although it still lacks a complete and systematic theory, the "evolutionary" approach of the "old" institutionalists tackles the problem of the interactive relationship of actor to structure without analytical reduction to one or the other.

Date: 1998
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