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The Growth and Decay of Custom: The Role of the New Institutional Economics in Economic History

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Author Info
Basu, Kaushik
Jones, Eric
Schlicht, Ekkehart

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Abstract

Customs and institutions affect and are affected by economic relations and processes. The two-way interaction is particularly important in studying history where the scale of the temporal canvas ensures that very few variables can be treated as parametric. This paper assesses the methodology which attempts the task. In particular it examines the problem of endogenizing customs, evaluates claims for the optimality of institutions, and also comments on the interplay between structural and inertial forces. Recent work in the new institutional economics stresses structural forces, while traditional history emphasizes inertial forces, but on closer analysis these are shown to be complementary.

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File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/3790/
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 3790.

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Date of creation: 1987
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Publication status: Published in Explorations in Economic History 1.24(1987): pp. 1-21
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3790

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Related research
Keywords: New institutional economics; inertia; optimality of institutions; Alfred Marshall; data of analysis;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
N0 - Economic History - - General
B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Bauer, P T, 1971. "Economic History as Theory," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 38(150), pages 163-79, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. McCloskey, Donald N, 1983. "The Rhetoric of Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 481-517, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1969. "Classificatory Notes on the Production and Transmission of Technological Knowledge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 29-35, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Basu, Kaushik, 1986. "One Kind of Power," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 259-82, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. David, Paul A, 1985. "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 332-37, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Akerlof, George A, 1976. "The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and Other Woeful Tales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 599-617, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Jones, E L, 1974. "Institutional Determinism and the Rise of the Western World," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 114-24, March.
  8. Field, Alexander James, 1984. "Microeconomics, Norms, and Rationality," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(4), pages 683-711, July.
  9. Field, Alexander James, 1981. "The problem with neoclassical institutional economics: A critique with special reference to the North/Thomas model of pre-1500 Europe," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 174-198, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Carnaje, Gideon P., 2007. "Contractual Arrangements in Philippine Fisheries," Discussion Papers DP 2007-22, Philippine Institute for Development Studies. [Downloadable!]
  2. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 1995. "Economic Analysis and Organised Religion," Chapters in Economics, in: Survival and Religion: Biological Evolution and Cultural Change University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Sindzingre, Alice, 2005. "Explaining Threshold Effects of Globalization on Poverty: An Institutional Perspective," Working Papers RP2005/53, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  4. Cramb, R.A., 1993. "The Evolution of Property Rights to Land in Sarawak: An Institutionalist Perspective," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(02), August. [Downloadable!]
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