Economic Behavior and Institutions Principles of Neoinstitutional Economics [Paperback]

This book is a comprehensive survey of 'neoinstitutional economics', which integrates different economic theories.A survey of an important new research program that extends to classical economic theory to examine the effects of institutions on economic behavior.A survey of an important new research program that extends to classical economic theory to examine the effects of institutions on economic behavior.An important new research program has developed in economics that extends neoclassical economic theory in order to examine the effects of institutions on economic behavior. The body of work emerging from this new line of inquiry includes contributions from the various branches of economic theory, such as the economics of property rights, the theory of the firm, cliometrics and law and economics. This book is the first comprehensive survey of this research program, which the author terms neoinstitutional economics. The author proposes a unified approach to this research, integrating the work of various contributors and emphasizing the common principles of inquiry that tie the work together. The theoretical discussion is accomplished by empirical studies dealing with a whole range of institutions and economic systems.Part I. Introduction to the Theory: 1. Generalising neoclassical economics: new tools and concepts; 2. Property rights, agency and economic organisation; 3. Explaining the rules; Part II. Property Rights and Economic Outcomes: 4. The economics of exclusive rights; 5. The ownership structure of firms and equilibrium outcomes; Part III. Explaining Economic Organisation: 6. The contractual nature of the firm; 7. The logic of economic organisation; Part IV. Explaining Property Rights: 8. The emergence of property rights; 9. Property rights in stateless societies; 10. The state in neoinstitutional economics. The survey succeeds in my view precisely in presenting and linking in a convincing way quite disparate material. Arthur Denzau, Washington Unil£–