The paper argues that, even in the absence of bureaucratic inertia, the transition from one convention to a superior one can be blocked. Because of the self-reinforcing mechanism generated by coordination effects, the economy can be locked-in to a Pareto-inferior convention. In the framework of...

This timely and far-reaching book addresses the long-term impact of the recent global economic crisis. New light is shed on the crisis and its historical roots, and resolutions for a more robust, resilient future socio-economic model are prescribed.

This article starts from the limits of the policies that assume a significant de-connection between antipoverty strategies and the logic of the growth regime and that mainly rely upon market mechanisms. By contrast, a branch of the new institutional economics argues that a complete set of...

Comment expliquer le basculement intervenu dans l'entre-deux-guerres dans l'appréciation de la qualité des vins de Bourgogne ? A partir d'une étude historique et ethnologique analysant le passage de la domination des négociants de Beaune en faveur des propriétaires, le propos est de...

Après avoir souligné la diversité des définitions et conceptions des lois en économie, l'article montre comment les progrès même de l'analyse économique ont conduit à relativiser l'existence de telles lois. Il n'a pas été possible de généraliser la théorie de l'équilibre général...

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that the dynamism of employment is always contradictory to the enforcement of some forms of security for workers. Contemporary theorizing now recognizes the specificity of the wage-labour nexus. Consequently, minimum security is required for good...

It is argued that the conventional analysis of the 2001 Argentina crisis in terms of populist budgetary policies and institutional rigidities of labor market is not satisfactory. The 2001 collapse takes place within a long history, but it results from a quite specific factor: the structural...

This article surveys some old and recent political economy research about the long term transformations and contemporary diversity in the mutual relationships between State, civil society and the economy. The hypothesis of institutional complementarity is extended from the institutional forms...