Institutional Economics

Bernard Chavance is Professor of Economics at the University Paris Diderot, France. He has published several books on comparative economic systems and institutions, particularly on socialist systems and post-socialist transformation. His book Economic reforms in the East: From the 1950s to the 1990s (1992, Nathan) has been translated into English (US), Russian, Japanese and Chinese.

• I. Introduction: the institutionalist families in economics, II. Original institutionalism, 1.Schmoller and the German historical school, 2. Veblen's ‘evolutionary institutionalism’, 3. Hamilton: institutional economics, 4. Commons: organisations and institutions, 5. Polanyi and the economy as an instituted process, III. The Austrian school and ‘ordoliberalism’, 1. Menger: the organic and pragmatic approaches, 2. Hayek’s ‘Orders’ and ‘Rules’, 3. Eucken and ‘ordoliberalism’, IV. The new institutional economics, 1. Williamson and the mechanisms of governance, 2. North: formal and informal institutions, 3. Game theory and comparative institutional analysis, V. Contemporary European currents of thought, 1.Regulation theory: historical macroeconomics, 2. The economics of conventions: interpreting the rules, 3. Hodgson and the revival of the ‘old institutional economics’, VI. Unity and diversity of institutionalisms

'This book constitutes a good comprehensive and simple guide to institutional economics. It thus demonstrates how important institutional economics can be to understand the real world. The various institutional perspectives presented help to the common roots and differences of contemporary approaches and therefore to grasp the man made complexity and the interdependencies of our economies. This book is in that respect a valuable guide to select relevant institutional approaches depending on the issues addressed.' -- Pascal Petit, CEPREMAP, France. "This brief introduction to institutionalism is well organized and covers the major principles behind the various incarnations of institutional economics. …book does what it sets out to do – provide a short, concise history of the institutional influences of economic theory." -- CHOICE (Aug 2009, Vol. 46); M. Steckbeck, Campbell University