Studies on the history of economic thought of American institutionalism usually focus on the founding fathers, or pre-1930s institutionalism. The decline in importance of this school of thought during the 1930s resulted in few post-World War II studies on the history of institutionalism....

Thorstein Veblen, a founder of original or old institutional economics, combined social and evolutionary thought in his institutionalist approach to dealing with psychological, social, and economic issues. The psychological content of Veblen's writings takes instinct and habits into...