In this essay I argue that it is the way institutions evolve that shapes long run economic performance. By institutions I mean formal rules--political and economic-- and informal constraints--such as conventions and norms of behavior as well as the characteristics of enforcement of both. To be...

The argument of this essay is that productivity increases result from both improvements in human organization and from technological developments. Indeed it is probably true that the former is as important as the latter in economic growth. In the following sections I first lay out the...

This outstanding book presents new original contributions from some of the world's leading economists including Ronald Coase, Douglass C. North, Masahiko Aoki, Oliver E. Williamson and Harold Demsetz. It demonstrates the extent and depth of the New Institutional Economics research programme...

This outstanding book presents new original contributions from some of the world's leading economists including Ronald Coase, Douglass C. North, Masahiko Aoki, Oliver E. Williamson and Harold Demsetz. It demonstrates the extent and depth of the New Institutional Economics research programme...

This essay first specifies and describes the behavioral and information cost assumptions that underlie instrumental rationality and the consequent a-institutional world of neoclassical theory and contrasts these assumptions to those that underpin a theory of institutions and transaction costs....

This thoroughly updated and revised edition of a popular and authoritative reference work introduces the reader to the major concepts and leading contributors in the field of law and economics. The Companion features accessible, informative and provocative entries on all the significant issues,...