Austrian economics allows us to identify a number of weak spots in the modern economics of organization that all relate to the treatment of knowledge. Specifically, this body of theory is open to the same kind of objections that HAYEK [1937, 1945] raised against economics, namely that it does...

I investigate the role played by Charles Babbage in the economic analysis of technological change. His contribution is quite important, for the way in which he carried out his studies anticipated themes that are the centre of economics and policy-making today. He considered the economic forces...

Contemporary economic liberalism comes in two forms: a substantive version, which defines the scope and extent of economic policy, and a procedural version, which draws on citizens' preferences. Whereas the recent reconception of economic liberalism based on social-contract theory considers the...

In this paper it is shown that the Historical School is based on a concept of sensus communis or Gemeinsinn (sense of community) rather than on a concept of an essentialist entity. Wilhelm Roscher in particular was dealing with the problem of how individual self-interest and conscience are...

We identify the ultimate ownership structures of the 20 largest firms in 12 transition countries in 1996, and the subsequent patterns of ownership change over 1996-2008. Of the state-controlled companies in 1996 more than half are still in state hands in 2008. Better quality of governmental...

Comparative law and finance quantifies differences in the laws governing the business enterprise in various countries. The resulting data can be used to test which legal institutions (if any) matter for financial development. Until recently only cross-sectional data were available. We report the...

The paper focuses on competition policy, which is at the center of ordoliberal thinking. Important characteristics are the emphasis on individual freedom, from which the goal of economic efficiency is merely derived; the strong role for the state in the preservation of the prerequisites of...

In international trade policy, the concept of market access is pivotal. Yet, it remains a neglected category in institutional-economics approaches to international trade. The paper introduces a new analytical category, which relates explicitly to the exchange of market access among governments:...

We propose evolutionary dynamics to show how rules converge into norms. Individuals play a game of upholding or rejecting a rule, and the more they uphold the rule, the more it becomes established as a norm. We find that when individuals are rational, the initial state determines whether the...

This paper presents an experimental test of a 2-player, one-shot game of conflict in which we vary the strength of property rights and the return on investment. Our results suggest that stronger property rights reduce conflict and increase investment. Contrary to intuition, we find increasing...