Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
Cambridge University Press, 3/9/2006
EAN 9780521671347, ISBN10: 0521671345
Paperback, 526 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English
It is widely believed that current disparities in economic, political, and social outcomes reflect distinct institutions. Institutions are invoked to explain why some countries are rich and others poor, some democratic and others dictatorial. But arguments of this sort gloss over the question of what institutions are, how they come about, and why they persist. They also fail to explain why institutions are influenced by the past, why it is that they can sometimes change, why they differ so much from society to society, and why it is hard to study them empirically and devise a policy aimed at altering them. This 2006 book seeks to overcome these problems, which have exercised economists, sociologists, political scientists, and a host of other researchers who use the social sciences to study history, law, and business administration. It presents a multi-disciplinary perspective to study endogenous institutions and their dynamics.
Part I. Preliminaries
1. Introduction
2. Institutions and transactions
Part II. Institutions as Systems in Equilibria
3. Private-order contract enforcement institutions
the Maghribi traders coalition
4. The organizational underpinnings of credible commitment by the state
the Merchant Guild
5. Endogenous institutions and game-theoretic analysis
Part III. Institutional Dynamics as a Historical Process
6. A theory of endogenous institutional change
7. Institutional trajectories
how past institutions affect current ones
8. Building a state
Genoa's Rise and Fall
9. Cultural beliefs and the organization of society
Part IV. The Empirical Method of Comparative and Historical Institutional Analysis
10. The institutional foundations of impersonal exchange
11. Interactive, context-specific analysis
Part V. Concluding Comments
12. Institutions, history, and development.