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Institutions
Abstract
Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). Throughout history, institutions have been devised by human beings to create order and reduce uncertainty in exchange. Together with the standard constraints of economics they define the choice set and therefore determine transaction and production costs and hence the profitability and feasibility of engaging in economic activity. They evolve incrementally, connecting the past with the present and the future; history in consequence is largely a story of institutional evolution in which the historical performance of economies can only be understood as a part of a sequential story. Institutions provide the incentive structure of an economy; as that structure evolves, it shapes the direction of economic change towards growth, stagnation, or decline. In this essay, I intend to elaborate on the role of institutions in the performance of economies and illustrate my analysis from economic history.
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Research works printed but not linked: 9
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- Yaney B. S., 1949, Second Series, 99
Cited by
Hodgson, G. M. (2006) · Journal of Economic Issues · doi:10.1080/00213624.2006.11506879 · Cited by 2,108
Transaction Cost Economics: How It Works; Where It is Headed
Williamson, O. E. (1998) · De Economist · doi:10.1023/a:1003263908567 · Cited by 1,315
Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh: How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids
Mair, J., Martí, I., & Ventresca, M. J. (2012) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0627 · Cited by 1,207
George, G., Merrill, R. K., & Schillebeeckx, S. J. D. (2021) · Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice · doi:10.1177/1042258719899425 · Cited by 1,066
David, P. A. (1994) · Structural Change and Economic Dynamics · doi:10.1016/0954-349x(94)90002-7 · Cited by 929
Metadata
- Authors
- North, D. C.
- Venue
- Journal of Economic Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 1991-02-01
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 97-112
- ISSN
- 0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4256216147
- Cited by
- 5,232
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 36.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- North, D. C. (1991). Institutions. Journal of Economic Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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