Hume and Institutional Theory

This paper shows the links between Hume's philosophy of customs, and the basic principles of institutional theory. This relationship has been suggested by contemporary economists such as Vernon Smith and others, who see in Hume the origins of today's broadly accepted dichotomy between constructive and ecological reasoning, essential to institutional thinking. For Hume habit, as the main guide of life, can be used to comprehend individual and collective behavioural patterns. The question is whether his reflections on the subject are consistent with the foundations of his own philosophy of belief