IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eaiere/v14y2017i2d10.1007_s40844-017-0087-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Masahiko Aoki’s conception of institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Hirokazu Takizawa

    (Chuo University)

Abstract

The present study examines Masahiko Aoki’s continual attempts to conceptualize institutions, with main focus on Aoki (Toward a comparative institutional analysis. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001; J Econ Behav Organ, 79:20–34, 2011). The unique aspect of his approach is identified as his efforts to grasp the dynamic and collective-cognitive nature of institutions. Highly valuing this uniqueness, I identified several difficulties in this approach. In this study, I argue that the profound nature of institutions is beyond the formal description of game theory, which Aoki maintained in his lifetime. I also argue that the Hegelian perspective submitted by Herrmann-Pillath and Boldyrev (Hegel, institutions and economics: performing the social. Routledge, London, 2014) suggests a possible future direction of the research on institutions in economics, albeit not necessarily one amenable to mathematical formulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hirokazu Takizawa, 2017. "Masahiko Aoki’s conception of institutions," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 523-540, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:eaiere:v:14:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s40844-017-0087-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s40844-017-0087-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40844-017-0087-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40844-017-0087-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Endogenizing institutions and institutional changes," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 16, pages 267-297, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Robert Aumann & Adam Brandenburger, 2014. "Epistemic Conditions for Nash Equilibrium," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Language of Game Theory Putting Epistemics into the Mathematics of Games, chapter 5, pages 113-136, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Hindriks, Frank & Guala, Francesco, 2015. "Institutions, rules, and equilibria: a unified theory," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 459-480, September.
    4. Searle, John R., 2015. "Status functions and institutional facts: reply to Hindriks and Guala," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 507-514, September.
    5. Aoki, Masahiko, 2010. "Corporations in Evolving Diversity: Cognition, Governance, and Institutions," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199218530, Decembrie.
    6. Arthur T. Denzau & Douglass C. North, 1994. "Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 3-31, February.
    7. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Institutions as cognitive media between strategic interactions and individual beliefs," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 17, pages 298-312, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Hayek, F. A., 1991. "The Fatal Conceit," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226320663 edited by Bartley, III, W. W., September.
    9. Greif, Avner, 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 912-950, October.
    10. Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 2015. "On defining institutions: rules versus equilibria," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 497-505, September.
    11. Aoki, Masahiko, 2015. "Why is the equilibrium notion essential for a unified institutional theory? A friendly remark on the article by Hindriks and Guala," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 485-488, September.
    12. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    13. Sugden, Robert, 2015. "On ‘common-sense ontology’: a comment on the paper by Frank Hindriks and Francesco Guala," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 489-492, September.
    14. Searle, John R., 2005. "What is an institution?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-22, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pietro Guarnieri, 2017. "Commitment to norms and the formation of institutions," Discussion Papers 2017/227, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, 2017. "Institutional naturalism: reflections on Masahiko Aoki’s contribution to institutional economics," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 501-522, December.
    3. Claudius Graebner & Amineh Ghorbani, 2019. "Defining institutions - A review and a synthesis," ICAE Working Papers 89, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    4. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Institutions as cognitive media between strategic interactions and individual beliefs," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 17, pages 298-312, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Herrmann-Pillath Carsten, 2014. "Naturalizing Institutions: Evolutionary Principles and Application on the Case of Money," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(2-3), pages 388-421, April.
    6. Shinji Teraji, 2017. "Understanding coevolution of mind and society: institutions-as-rules and institutions-as-equilibria," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 16(1), pages 95-112, November.
    7. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2007. "Poverty traps: a perspective from development economics," Working Papers hal-04139210, HAL.
    8. Alberto Battistini, 2008. "Micro-Founded Institutions and Macro-Founded Individuals: The Dual Nature of Profit," Department of Economics University of Siena 550, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    9. Georgina M. Gómez, 2019. "Money as an Institution: Rule versus Evolved Practice? Analysis of Multiple Currencies in Argentina," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Pietro Guarnieri & Tommaso Luzzati, 2018. "Some reflections on the "battle of the sexes"," Discussion Papers 2018/239, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    11. Virginia Cecchini Manara & Lorenzo Sacconi, 2019. "Institutions, Frames, and Social Contract Reasoning," Econometica Working Papers wp71, Econometica.
    12. Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Sacconi, Lorenzo, 2013. "Social responsibility, activism and boycotting in a firm–stakeholders network of games with players’ conformist preferences," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 216-226.
    13. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2007. "Poverty traps: a perspective from development economics," EconomiX Working Papers 2007-26, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    14. Francesco GUALA & Frank HINDRIKS, 2013. "A Unified Social Ontology," Departmental Working Papers 2013-20, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    15. John Meadowcroft & Mark Pennington, 2008. "Bonding and bridging: Social capital and the communitarian critique of liberal markets," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 21(2), pages 119-133, September.
    16. Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu, 1999. "Policy Shocks, Market Intermediaries, and Corporate Strategy: The Evolution of Business Groups in Chile and India," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 271-310, June.
    17. Van Damme, Eric, 2002. "Strategic equilibrium," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, in: R.J. Aumann & S. Hart (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 41, pages 1521-1596, Elsevier.
    18. Haucap, Justus, 2017. "The rule of law and the emergence of market exchange: A new institutional economic perspective," DICE Discussion Papers 276, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    19. W. Bentley MacLeod, 2006. "Reputations, Relationships and the Enforcement of Incomplete Contracts," CESifo Working Paper Series 1730, CESifo.
    20. Coyne, Christopher J. & Mathers, Rachel L., 2011. "Rituals: An economic interpretation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 74-84.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Conception of institutions; Aoki;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eaiere:v:14:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s40844-017-0087-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.