This book depicts the role of both formal and informal institutions in achieving long-term economic efficiency and development. It is organized into three sections: the first section deals with the historical and political roots that make institutions favorable to development; the second section...

1. Adam Smith and the idea of morally constrained rationality -- 2. John Stuart Mill and the concept of socially embedded rationality -- 3. William Stanley Jevons and the concept of rationality as maximization -- 4. Vilfredo Pareto and the concept of instrumental rationality -- 5. Lionel Robbins...