Economic Behavior and Institutions


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive survey of 'neoinstitutional economics', which integrates different economic theories.




Microeconomics


Book Description

In this novel introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency. Each chapter is introduced by empirical puzzles or historical episodes illuminated by the modeling that follows, and the book closes with sets of problems to be solved by readers seeking to improve their mathematical modeling skills. Complementing standard mathematical analysis are agent-based computer simulations of complex evolving systems that are available online so that readers can experiment with the models. Bowles concludes with the time-honored challenge of "getting the rules right," providing an evaluation of markets, states, and communities as contrasting and yet sometimes synergistic structures of governance. Must reading for students and scholars not only in economics but across the behavioral sciences, this engagingly written and compelling exposition of the new microeconomics moves the field beyond the conventional models of prices and markets toward a more accurate and policy-relevant portrayal of human social behavior.




Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance


Book Description

An analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies is developed in this analysis of economic structures.




Economic Behavior and Legal Institutions


Book Description

This book presents a unified picture of the full economic-legal system, based on results within the novel fields of "new institutional economics" and "law and economics".




Institutions in Economics


Book Description

This book examines and compares the 'old' institutionalism of Veblen, Mitchell, Commons, and Ayres, with the 'new' institutionalism developed from neoclassical and Austrian sources.




The Foundations of Institutional Economics


Book Description

K. William Kapp was one of the leading 20 th century institutionalists and a founding member of the Association for Evolutionary Economics. This book was developed by Kapp and is his attempt to present the foundations of institutional economics though has remained unfinished and unpublished during the last 30 years since his death. Carefully edited with additional material from some of Kapp' s other major works and with a full introduction from Sebasitan Berger and Rolf Steppacher, this book represents a major reappraisal of Kapp' s contribution ...




Economic Analysis of Institutions and Systems


Book Description

In the late 1980s, the field of comparative economics and NATO faced a similar problem: the threat of obsolescence. A predictable reaction of those who had made major investments in both comparative economics and NATO was to look for a new job. It was time to say: comparative economic systems are dead, long live comparative economic systems. The purpose of this book is to redirect study of what we called comparative economic systems toward analysis of the development of institutions and the effects of alternative institutional arrangements on economic performance. To that end, the book internalizes into a theoretical framework (1) the effects of alternative property rights on the costs of transactions and incentives structures, (2) the effects of the costs of transactions and incentives on economic behavior, and (3) the evidence for refutable implications of those effects. Analysis here focuses on the issues, propositions and conclusions that lend themselves to the only known scientific test: empirical verification. Thus, this book is not about what socialism or capitalism could have been, should have been, or should be. Nor is it an ode to capitalism. Its purpose is not to assert that capitalism is a better economic system than socialism. The history of this century and the market for institutions have done that. My purpose is to explain what is it that makes the institutions of capitalism better in terms of economic outcome than all other alternatives that have been tried since the beginning of recorded history.




Institutions, Behaviour and Economic Theory


Book Description

This book is about the conceptual foundations of an intermediate way between liberalism and socialism. From a standpoint of economic theory, this middle way is conceived of as a synthesis of classical (Ricardian) and Keynesian political economy. While the former deals with proportions between individuals or collectives and society in tackling the problems of distribution and value on the basis of the surplus principle, the latter is concerned with the scale of economic activity as explained by the principle of effective demand. Political economy pictures the economic aspects of the functioning of the institutional system within which the behaviour of individuals is embedded. The economy considered is, primarily, neither a market nor a planned economy, but, rather, a monetary production economy. To establish an alternative to liberalism and socialism requires setting up a system of the social sciences. In this work suggestions are made for linking political economy with other social sciences, i.e. sociology, law and politics in the traditional sense, thus establishing the unity of the social sciences. In a Keynesian vein, the social sciences are conceived of as moral sciences, a view which gives rise to a specific philosophy of history. To complete the picture, issues of method associated with the theory of knowledge in the social sciences and the problem of linking theory with historical reality are also covered.




Economic Behavior, Economic Freedom, and Entrepreneurship


Book Description

This collection of chapters comprises timely aspects of two rapidly growing bodies of academic research: entrepreneurship and economic freedom. Expert editors add to an important field of research, the economics of entrepreneurship, and explore how institutions influence entrepreneurial behavior. This book provides comprehensive and contemporary insights into the interaction between economic behavior of firms and households, economic freedom, and entrepreneurship, and how it generates an environment with greater opportunities for growth and development for individuals, households, and private-sector firms. This advanced and revolutionary book will prove to be a valuable tool for academics conducting research in entrepreneurship and/or economic freedom as well as for graduate students studying in these areas. The volume also provides insight into the measurement and value of economic freedom around the world, making it a useful resource for policymakers and practitioners.




Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics


Book Description

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Get ready to change the way you think about economics. Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans—predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth—and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world. Traditional economics assumes rational actors. Early in his research, Thaler realized these Spock-like automatons were nothing like real people. Whether buying a clock radio, selling basketball tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. More importantly, our misbehavior has serious consequences. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behavior, Thaler enlightens readers about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world. He reveals how behavioral economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV game shows, the NFL draft, and businesses like Uber. Laced with antic stories of Thaler’s spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking, Misbehaving is a singular look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining. Shortlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award