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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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
3790.
Length: Date of creation: 1987 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Explorations in Economic History 1.24(1987): pp. 1-21 Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3790
Find related papers by JEL classification: N0 - Economic History - - General B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
References listed on IDEAS 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.:
Bauer, P T, 1971.
"Economic History as Theory,"
Economica,
London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 38(150), pages 163-79, May.
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