 Foundations of Contemporary Economics: New Institutional Economics vs. New Economic Sociology – The Granovetter-Williamson DebateHenrik Egbert (henrik.egbert@hs-anhalt.de), Teodor Sedlarski and Aleksandar B. Todorov Economic Thought journal, 2024, issue 1, 37-53 Abstract: Nearly 50 years ago, Mark Granovetter initiated a fundamental critique of economic theory. His critique was the starting point for the New Economic Sociology (NES). Particularly, he criticized the emerging theories of New Institutional Economics (NIE), focusing on the ideas of Oliver Williamson (1932–2020) who was one of the most prominent representatives of this school. In this paper we address this critique and Williamson’s response to it. Williamson argued from the perspective of transaction cost economics, while Granovetter focused on the social embeddedness of individuals. The impact of this debate on economics has resulted in an increased research interest in the role of institutions and social networks. However, both lines of thought did not bring economic and sociological theories together. NES established as a subdiscipline in Sociology. Its central concept of embeddedness continued to attract interest but proved to be of little empirical applicability. NIE, on the other hand, has become part of mainstream economics. JEL-codes: B15 B21 B25 B31 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bas:econth:y:2024:i:1:p:37-53 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Economic Thought journal from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute Contact information at EDIRC. |
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