Institutions again have become the focus of the theorizing and empirical work of economists concerned with the determinants of economic growth, and of cross country differences in income levels. One central argument f this paper is that institutions and institutional change need to be understood...

In a recent paper (Nelson & Sampat, 2001) we proposed that it is fruitful to conceptualize institutions as “social technologies” that are standard among economic actors in particular contexts. This paper extends the social technology concept to study institutionalization and institutional...