Introduction: Handbook of New Institutional Economics

Claude Ménard () and Mary M. Shirley ()
Additional contact information
Claude Ménard: Pantheon-Sorbonne University
Mary M. Shirley: The Ronald Coase Institute

Chapter 1 in Handbook of New Institutional Economics, 2025, pp 1-21 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract New institutional economics (NIE) studies the rules and norms that humans devise to reduce uncertainty and control their environment, both formal institutions, such as written contracts and laws, and informal institutions, such as societal norms. NIE is an exceptionally dynamic field and, as this introductory chapter attests, this second edition of the Handbook covers a wealth of new research and novel methodologies. It includes a new section on culture and informal institutions and new chapters on local politics, authoritarian institutions, platforms, relational contracts, and more. Many chapters from the first edition incorporate new discoveries in this rapidly changing field. This edition, like the first, covers both branches of NIE. As North defines it, “Institutions are the rule of the game in a society,” while organizations are the players, a distinction which delineates the two branches. The “Northean” branch focuses on the fundamental ground rules of the institutional environment and the “Williamsonian” branch on organizations and their governing institutions.

Keywords: New institutional economics; Organizations; Transaction costs; Property rights; Contracts; Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-50810-3_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031508103

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-50810-3_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().