Foundations of Institutional Economics

Sebastian Berger is Assistant Professor of Economics at Roanoke College, USA.Rolf Steppacher is a former graduate student assistant to K. William Kapp and a member of the Board of the Kapp Foundation, and until his recent retirement was Professor of Economics at the Graduate Institute at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

• Editorial Introduction 1. Introduction: The Lasting and Increasing Relevance of Institutional Economics 2. Institutional Economics and Conventional Economic Theory 3. The Intellectual Antecedents of Institutional Economics 4. The Nature and Meaning of Institutions: Towards a Theory of Institutional Change 5. The Institutional Theory of Human Conduct and Economic Behavior 6. Towards a Theory of Human Needs and Social Minima 7. The Institutional Concept of Capital and the Process of Capital Formation 8. The Interaction between Technology and Business Enterprise 9. Technology II 10. The Multi-Sector Economy and the Theory of Economic Domination. Appendix A: Substantive vs. Formal Rationality: Environmental Indicators as Indicators of Social Use Values. Appendix B: The Central Hypothesis of Institutional Economics: Circular and Cumulative Causation. Appendix C: Institutionalism and the Price System: The Problem of Social Costs. Appendix D: Environment and Technology: New Frontiers for the Social and Natural Sciences. Appendix E: Science and Technology in the Light of Institutional Analysis: Governmental Furtherance of Environmentally Sound Technologies as a Focus of Research and Environmental Policies. Appendix F: Social Economics and Social Welfare Minima. Appendix G: In Defense of Institutional Economics. Appendix H: Alternative Introductions. Appendix I: Project Outline "American Institutionalism: The System of Economic Analysis of Veblen and his Followers"

'[Kapp's] The Foundations of Institutional Economics offers a valuable, readable, and profound introduction to critical institutionalism. This book should be read by all students of economics as it serves as an antidote to the economic mainstream and pushes against conventional indoctrination.' - Helge Peukert, Journal of Economic Issues'Kapp knew his intellectual enemy well so in this new book he delivered neoclassicism a killing blow, deep anddeft...Berger and Steppacher retrieved it from Kapp’s papers, edited it for posthumous publication and added appendix materials that help flesh out the treatment of a number of issues. Geoffrey M. Hodgson wrote a short foreword for the book. Institutionalists owe these scholars our gratitude for saving this valuable work.' - William Dugger, Journal of Economic Issues