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A review essay on The European Guilds

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  • Mark Koyama

    (CEPR
    Mercatus Center)

Abstract

Ogilvie’s The European Guilds is a major contribution to economic history and institutional economics. This review essay surveys the main contributions of Guilds, locating it in a long-standing debate over whether craft guilds contributed positively or negatively to economic development in medieval and early modern Europe. The wealth of evidence Ogilvie amasses suggests that craft guilds should be thought of as organizations that primarily benefited their members at the expense of non-members, and used regulations to extract rents and exclude outsiders.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Koyama, 2020. "A review essay on The European Guilds," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 277-287, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:33:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11138-019-00476-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-019-00476-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Guilds; Institutions; Rent-Seeking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • Y3 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Book Reviews

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