Despite being a key term in institutional economics, the term 'institution' seems to be used in various different ways. To what extent is this problematic, given that a shared understanding of key terms among scholars is a necessary condition for scientific progress? We review prominent...

This paper analyzes developmental trajectories in the EU. In doing so, it diagnoses economic polarization on two different levels: for one, we observe a divergence of average incomes across EU countries as a persistent empirical feature associated with European integration. For another, European...

This paper explores whether the EU's new economic development model of "competitive sustainability" could serve as a role model for ecologically sustainable development models for advanced economies in general. To this end, we first discuss theoretically the interplay between "competitiveness"...

The goal of this paper is twofold: first, it assesses the current state of collaboration between institutionalist economics and the academic degrowth discourse on the topic of global inequalities. Since a systematic literature review of the current degrowth discourse shows that the level of such...

The article is a contribution to the evolving field of competition research. More precisely our paper provides a comprehensive typology of the different ways competitization is and has been studied across different disciplines and research programs. The article goes beyond a classical literature...

We conduct a systematic literature review comprising both a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the academic degrowth literature considering the Global South, and delineate substantive and methodological implications for future research. We find two main narratives: one stressing...

Achieving compatibility between economies and planetary boundaries poses a momentous challenge. It requires a fundamental restructuring of current industrial systems, with a dual focus on the creation and protection of green technologies and firms, as well as the redirection of workers and...

At its core, the discussion on the micro-macro link in heterodox economics is concerned with the correct treatment of aggregates and aggregation in social theory. In this chapter we survey heterodox approaches to the micro-macro link with a focus on shared understandings and convictions that...

At its core, the discussion on the micro-macro link in heterodox economics is concerned with the correct treatment of aggregates and aggregation in social theory. In this chapter we survey heterodox approaches to the micro-macro link with a focus on shared understandings and convictions that...

This short paper explains the theory of path dependence and clarifies its relation to concepts such as positive feedback or lock-in, arguing that path dependence is a core theoretical element of political economy in general, and institutional and evolutionary economics in particular. We first...