Search results for "Institutional economics"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
Institutional Arrangements Matter for Both Efficiency and Distribution: Contributions and Challenges of the New Institutional Economics
2011
Are scholars in the New Institutional Economics tradition systematically disregarding distributive aspects when approaching policy issues as was the case during the 1970s and 1980s? Do economic and political agents usually care about distribution too? To provide an answer to these questions is the basic purpose of this chapter. The analysis carried out demonstrates that not all NIE oriented scholars disregard distributive issues. Some contributions are examined as examples, mainly in the so-called political economy branch of NIE. By means of a well-known graphical tool, the chapter also emphasizes that all of us clearly care about distribution, not just about efficiency, when participating …
An institutional capital approach to sustainable development
2008
PurposeThe paper aims to outline and analyse some important elements of institutional capital and their potential effect on sustainable development.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents four elements of institutional capital: public domain, institutional strength, good governance, and institutional equilibrium. The choice of these elements and the analysis of their economic, social and environmental impacts are based on literature study and interpretation and extension of existing analyses which rather focus on either economic or environmental issues.FindingsThe main argument of the paper is that institutional capital is a fundament of sustainable development, and that a lack of suc…
Human Nature and Economic Institutions: Instinct Psychology, Behaviorism, and the Development of American Institutionalism
2004
Recent articles have explored from different perspectives the psychological foundations of American institutionalism from its beginning to the interwar years (Hodgson 1999; Lewin 1996; Rutherford 2000a, 2000b; Asso and Fiorito 2003). Other authors had previously dwelled upon the same topic in their writings on the originsand development of the social sciences in the United States (Curti 1980; Degler 1991; Ross 1991). All have a common starting point: the emergence during the second half of the nineteenth century of instinct-based theories of human agency. Although various thinkers had already acknowledged the role of impulses and proclivities, it was not until Darwin's introduction of biolo…
Waging War Against Mechanical Man. Frank H. Knight's Critique of Behavioristic Psychology
2002
The major theme of this essay is to explore the rationale of Knight's campaign against the adoption of behaviorism in economics. We also attempt to qualify whether Knight's methodological criticism may somewhat undermine his recently acquired credentials as an institutionalist economist. In so doing we focus our attention in particular, but not exclusively, on his debate with the institutionalist Morris A. Copeland. In the first section we try to explain why behaviorism gained consensus among institutional economists, and we also provide a brief overview of the main behavioristic themes as they were presented in contemporary economic literature. The second section is devoted to Knight's rea…
Human Nature and Economic Institutions Instinct Psychology, Behaviorism and the Development of American Institutionalism
2003
This paper explores the evolution of the psychological foundation of institutional economics between the early XXc and the 1940s. The first part deals with the rise and fall of instinct psychology. Inspired by Veblen's taxonomy of instinctive behavior, several American economists attempted to build a viable alternative to psychological hedonism of neoclassical economics then only at its infancy. In this debate we show how instinct theory came to be applied to the field now as industrial psychology. The second part discusses some of the reasons why this methodological approach began to lose momentum among leading American institutionalists. In this section we also present the emergence of be…
“INSTITUTIONAL CAPITAL” AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ‐ THE IMPORTANCE OF AN INSTITUTIONAL EQUILIBRIUM / INSTITUCINIS KAPITALAS KAIP DARNAUS…
2008
The main aim of this article is to provide a basis for changing the focus in New Institutional Economics (NIE) from the economic effects of institutions to the importance of “institutional capital” for sustainable development. First, a theoretical model of NIE is presented in the context of sustainable development. Then, the concept of an institutional equilibrium (where informal institutions support and strengthen formal institutions) is discussed as an important determinant of “institutional capital” stimulating or hampering sustainable development. Santrauka Šio straipsnio tikslas – pateikti naujos institucinės ekonomikos (NIE) pokyčius, kai pastebimas perėjimas nuo ekonominių institucij…
Economic Degrowth and the Collapse of Institutional Order: Theory and Propositions
2022
Integrating insights from new institutional economics and studies on the collapse of past empires, we sketch a process model that links economic degrowth to the collapse of institutional orders. Our thought experiment starts from emphasizing the importance of institutions and enforcement mechanisms in maintaining a sufficient level of economic activity to sustain public costs. We flip this established logic and elucidate the negative role of economic degrowth in the weakening of the public sector’s ability to enforce institutional rules. Internal and external shocks further shake the stability of the institutional order and, at some point, individuals’ belief in institutional rules and nor…
Un’analisi giuridica dell’economia: John R Commons e i Legal Foundations of Capitalism
2015
Legal Foundations of Capitalism by John Roger Commons (1924) challenges both orthodox theories of economics and mainstream legal doctrines, at a time when the social sciences were oriented towards new epistemological approaches. This essay shows how Common’s work overruled the assumptions of that movement which in the 20th century became known as Law and Economics. It is not an attempt to extend economic analysis to the study of law. Instead, it is aimed at the application of legal concepts, terms and definitions to economics, and at making economic phenomena coincide with juridicial ones. The end result is the challenge of both neoclassical economics and of traditional legal theories.
The macroeconomic effects of electricity-sector privatization
2021
Abstract We examine the macroeconomic effects of privatizing the ownership structure of the electricity market, using a novel indicator of privatization which covers 90 advanced, emerging market, and developing economies, since 1974. Privatization reforms, on average, improve outcomes in the provision of electricity and have positive macroeconomic effects: output and employment increase in the years following electricity-sector privatization reforms. Reforms are also associated also with an increase in income inequality, but the effects are small, on average. These impacts vary according to the business cycle, quality of institutions, and a country's development status, with macroeconomic a…
Do debt crises boost financial reforms?
2014
"Published online: 15 Aug. 2014"