IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/rp2006-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development

Author

Listed:
  • Erik S. Reinert

Abstract

This paper argues for an 'ancient' institutional school, predating Thorstein Veblen's 'old' institutionalism. In this view, going back as far as the thirteenth century, institutions tended to be seen as specific to a mode of production. Here both institutions and development itself are context-specific and activity-specific. Much clearer than today the arrows of causality of economic development go from the mode of production to the institutional setting, not vice versa.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik S. Reinert, 2006. "Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-77, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2006-77
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/rp2006-77.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Perelman, 2002. "Steal This Idea," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-07929-9, December.
    2. Erik Reinert & Arno Daastøl, 1997. "Exploring the Genesis of Economic Innovations: The Religious Gestalt-Switch and the Duty to Invent as Preconditions for Economic Growth," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 233-283, May.
    3. Beghin, John C & Kherallah, Mylene, 1994. "Political Institutions and International Patterns of Agricultural Protection," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 482-489, August.
    4. Erik S. Reinert (ed.), 2004. "Globalization, Economic Development and Inequality," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1570.
    5. Erik S. Reinert, 2006. "Development and Social Goals: Balancing Aid and Development to Prevent ‘Welfare Colonialism’," Working Papers 14, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    6. Erik S. Reinert, 1999. "The role of the state in economic growth," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(4/5), pages 268-326, September.
    7. Arthur, W Brian, 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 116-131, March.
    8. Erik S. Reinert & Arno M. Daastøl, 2004. "The Other Canon: The History of Renaissance Economics," Chapters, in: Erik S. Reinert (ed.), Globalization, Economic Development and Inequality, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Douglass C. North, 1991. "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-112, Winter.
    10. Ronald H. Coase, 2000. "The new institutional economics," Chapters, in: Claude Ménard (ed.), Institutions, Contracts and Organizations, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Reinert, Erik S., 2004. "How rich nations got rich. Essays in the history of economic policy," MPRA Paper 48147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Erik S. Reinert, 2000. "Full circle: economics from scholasticism through innovation and back into mathematical scholasticism: Reflections on a 1769 Price essay: “Why is it that economics so far has gained so few advantages ," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 27(4/5), pages 364-376, September.
    13. Peter Evans, 2006. "Extending the 'Institutional' Turn: Property, Politics and Development Trajectories," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-113, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Ha-Joon Chang, 2006. "Understanding the Relationship between Institutions and Economic Development: Some Key Theoretical Issues," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2006-05, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guillermo Maya, 2022. "Latifundio, de Yoknapatawpha a Macondo," Ensayos de Economía 20581, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín.
    2. Hartmann, Simon, 2012. "The conceptual flaws of the new EU development agenda from a political economy perspective, or why change is problematic for a donor-driven development policy," Working Papers 35, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).

    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. Reinert, Erik S., 2004. "How rich nations got rich. Essays in the history of economic policy," MPRA Paper 48147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Essiane, Patrick-Nelson Daniel, 2020. "De l'Ancienne Economie Institutionnelle à la Nouvelle Economie Institutionnelle: une introduction à quelques débats [Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics: an Introduction to ," MPRA Paper 102858, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Erik Reinert, 2007. "Towards an Austro–German theory of uneven economic development? A plea for theorising by inclusion," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 155-170, September.
    4. Tony Addison & Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2003. "Institutional Quality, Reforms and Integration in the Maghreb," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-76, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Gagliardi, Francesca, 2008. "Institutions and economic change: A critical survey of the new institutional approaches and empirical evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 416-443, February.
    6. Swinnen, Johan F. M. & Banerjee, Anurag N. & Gorter, Harry de, 2001. "Economic development, institutional change, and the political economy of agricultural protection: An econometric study of Belgium since the 19th century," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 25-43, October.
    7. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2009. "The economic analysis of social norms: A reappraisal of Hayek’s legacy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 259-279, September.
    8. Naritomi, Joana & Soares, Rodrigo R. & Assunção, Juliano J., 2012. "Institutional Development and Colonial Heritage within Brazil," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 393-422, May.
    9. Erik S. Reinert, 2006. "European Integration, Innovations and Uneven Economic Growth: Challenges and Problems of EU 2005," The Other Canon Foundation and Tallinn University of Technology Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics 05, TUT Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance.
    10. Yuko Aoyama, 2003. "Sociospatial Dimensions of Technology Adoption: Recent M-Commerce and E-Commerce Developments," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(7), pages 1201-1221, July.
    11. Das Gupta, Monica & Grandvoinnet, Helene & Romani, Mattia, 2000. "State-community synergies in development : laying the basis for collective action," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2439, The World Bank.
    12. Sanjeev Gupta, 2008. "Enhancing Effective Utilization of Aid in Fragile States," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-07, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Jussi Heikkilä & Timo Ali-Vehmas & Julius Rissanen, 2021. "The Link Between Standardization and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Analysis," International Journal of Standardization Research (IJSR), IGI Global, vol. 19(1), pages 1-25, January.
    14. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2008. "L’analyse économique des normes sociales : une réévaluation de l’héritage hayékien," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 22(4), pages 103-137.
    15. L. Pérez-Villar & A. Seric, 2015. "Multinationals in Sub-Saharan Africa: Domestic linkages and institutional distance," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 142, pages 94-117.
    16. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2007. "Innovation System Research – Where it came from and where it might go," Globelics Working Paper Series 2007-01, Globelics - Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems, Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management.
    17. Frank, Joshua, 2005. "Technological lock-in, positive institutional feedback, and research on laboratory animals," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 557-575, December.
    18. Yalcintas, Altug, 2010. "The ‘Coase Theorem’ vs. Coase theorem proper: How an error emerged and why it remained uncorrected so long," MPRA Paper 37936, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Bukvić, Rajko, 2017. "Други Канон И Маршалов План Као Модел Економске Политике [Other Canon and Marshall’s Plan as a Model of Economic Policy]," MPRA Paper 94648, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Gerry Rodgers, 1992. "Institutional Economics, Development Economics and Labour Economics," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 581-605.

    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:unu:wpaper:rp2006-77. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    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.