New Institutional Economics as Situational Logic


Book Description

Drawing on phenomenological and realist approaches, this book surveys the theoretical evolution of new institutional economics. For all its popularity and explanatory power, new institutional economics is not a homogenous field but encompasses a range of different theoretical approaches starting from Coase and the introduction of transaction costs. In particular, the concept of rationality is a rich source of dispute leading to a bifurcation between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ perspectives. The insider view refers to studying conscious human beings – the economic actor – who seek their self-interest and find themselves in their mundane situation. The self-interest of the economic actor bestows him with logic. It makes the logic of the situation the method of economics, as Karl Popper establishes. Thus, the book argues for the positioning of new institutional economics as situational logic, that is, an economic theory that formulates and studies single-exit situations that face the economic actor. Ultimately, this book presents a critical appraisal of new institutional economics theories based on a substantiated methodological perspective that effectively navigates the theorist between realism and rigor. This book will be of interest to readers of new institutional economics, economic theory, and the philosophy of economics and social sciences.




New Economic Statecraft


Book Description

This book provides insights on the art of governing a state and managing its external relations from a wealth-power logic. It looks at "economic statecraft", which consists of wealth production, wealth mobilization, and wealth-power conversion by a state. This book reconceptualizes what economic statecraft is and proposes a new theory focused on wealth-power conversion. With a long historic perspective, this book goes through the modern history of Western powers practicing economic statecraft since 1500, and presents three case studies, the United States, the European Union, and China, the three biggest users of economic statecraft in the contemporary world. The book serves as an ideal reference for policy makers, businesspeople, and researchers whose work touch upon either wealth creation, power projection, or the combination of both.




Knowledge and Institutions


Book Description

This open access book bridges the disciplinary boundaries within the social sciences to explore the role of social institutions in shaping geographical contexts, and in creating new knowledge. It includes theorizations as well as original empirical case studies on the emergence, maintenance and change of institutions as well as on their constraining and enabling effects on innovation, entrepreneurship, art and cultural heritage, often at regional scales across Europe and North America. Rooted in the disciplines of management and organization studies, sociology, geography, political science, and economics the contributors all take comprehensive approaches to carve out the specific contextuality of institutions as well as their impact on societal outcomes. Not only does this book offer detailed insights into current debates in institutional theory, it also provides background for scholars, students, and professionals at the intersection between regional development, policy-making, and regulation.




Declining Profitability and the Evolution of the US Economy


Book Description

The 1970s were a pivotal decade for the US economy: deindustrialization broke the power of the labor unions and made possible the redistribution of income in favor of corporate profits; globalization and offshore investments opened alternatives to domestic nonfinancial capital accumulation; domestic productivity growth declined; and labor-saving technology empowered superstar corporations to rapidly gain market share. This book argues that the persistent fall in profitability, leading to the stagflation crisis, was a direct result of the transition from the Fordist phase of capital accumulation, based on large-scale manufacturing, to the neoliberal phase and the rising power of finance. Neoliberalism restored the power of rentiers but not the profit rates of nonfinancial corporations. Falling accumulation rates weakened the growth capacity of nonfinancial corporate firms and secular stagnation became the norm. Neo-Keynesian economists, Larry Summers and Paul Krugman, explained the persistence of secular stagnation with arguments borrowed from Alvin Hansen in the 1930s, such as the declining birth rate or the falling relative prices of investment goods, hence a shortfall of demand. In the Classical paradigm, profitability drives capital accumulation and falling profitability slows down growth. As the accumulation rate declined and the capacity growth diminished, breakdowns in supply links, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prevented large infusions of purchasing power to find matching levels of supply, hence the stagflation crisis returned. The book will be a great asset to researchers and scholars interested in the development of Classical Political Economy concerning issues related to inflation, stagnation, growing inequality, and the next phase of neoliberalism.




The Institutional Logics Perspective


Book Description

How do institutions influence and shape cognition and action in individuals and organizations, and how are they in turn shaped by them? Various social science disciplines have offered a range of theories and perspectives to provide answers to this question. Within organization studies in recent years, several scholars have developed the institutional logics perspective. An institutional logic is the set of material practices and symbolic systems including assumptions, values, and beliefs by which individuals and organizations provide meaning to their daily activity, organize time and space, and reproduce their lives and experiences. This approach affords significant insights, methodologies, and research tools, to analyze the multiple combinations of factors that may determine cognition, behaviour, and rationalities. In tracing the development of the institutional logics perspective from earlier institutional theory, the book analyzes seminal research, illustrating how and why influential works on institutional theory motivated a distinct new approach to scholarship on institutional logics. The book shows how the institutional logics perspective transforms institutional theory. It presents novel theory, further elaborates the institutional logics perspective, and forges new linkages to key literatures on practice, identity, and social and cognitive psychology. It develops the microfoundations of institutional logics and institutional entrepreneurship, proposing a set of mechanisms that go beyond meta-theory, integrating this work with macro theory on institutional logics into a cross-levels model of cultural heterogeneity. By incorporating current psychological understanding of human behaviour and linking it to sociological perspectives, it aims to provide an encompassing framework for institutional analysis, and to be an essential and accessible reference for scholars and advanced students of organizational behaviour, organization and management theory, business strategy, and cultural sociology.




The Scottish Economy and Nationalism


Book Description

Scotland’s economic capacity to prosper independently of Britain has become a key political issue, dominating the independence referendum of 2014 and continuing to influence British politics since. But, as this book shows, the Scottish economy is not merely a statistical object – it is also a political, sociological and cultural idea which has been imagined and constructed. The book explores the history of how Scotland has been framed in statistical and policy terms, which are laden with conflicts over meaning, ranging from class struggles and struggles against "external control" to the ongoing debate over national independence. Using Scotland as a case study for examining the political meaning of "the economy", the book also considers the origins of efforts to measure the Scottish economy in the British nationalist terms of "regional policy". It then considers the influence, in turn, of North Sea oil, globalisation/Europeanisation, class dealignment and neoliberal "enterprise" ideology in changing the meanings attached to the Scottish economy. These form necessary conditions for the debate on national independence, where the nature and the future of the Scottish economy remain the central controversy. By examining the economic ideas of a self-proclaimed "cosmopolitan" nationalist movement, the study will offer deeper insights into how nationalists are adapting to the crisis of globalisation. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on Scottish independence as well as economic sociology, nationalism, critical geography and political economy more broadly.




Human Economics


Book Description

The term “human economics” is sometimes used within economic theory with the hope of repositioning economic discipline as a human and social science, but with scarce success. Indeed, although great economists have always carefully considered human nature, it has been largely neglected in modern economics. This book explores the potentials of a human economics, arguing that the complexity and peculiarities of human nature should be central to the study of economics. Complex economic phenomena are subject to laws and limits that reveal their internal order in spite of the apparent randomness and unpredictability. The book embraces the contributions of thinkers and economists who have tried to fully consider human nature and society within their biological environment. From these solid foundations, the book introduces a different Weltanschauung, offers an analysis of socio-economic paradigms, and develops an alternative theoretical framework. On the basis of a transdisciplinary methodology, the book investigates human nature, interactions, and systems up to the macroeconomic cyclical development of the capitalist system. Future perspectives and issues facing modern economies are also discussed from environmental sustainability to globalization and socio-political challenges. This book marks an original contribution to the literature on retooling economic discipline and presents useful food for thought for scholarly readers while remaining accessible to graduates who are studying mainstream economics.




Beyond Ecological Economics and Development


Book Description

The interrelationship among development, environment, and human needs is one of the key issues being faced by the world today. The Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef, was a leading thinker on this dynamic, and this book provides both an introduction to and analysis of his work and ideas. Arranged in three main sections – “Human needs and wellbeing”, “Development, growth and sustainability”, and “Methodology of economics” – the chapters in this book contribute to on-going debates on issues as important as human development, the limits of economic growth, deep ecology, sustainable consumption, entrepreneurship, climate change, interdisciplinarity, and the methodology and practice of economics. The contributors to this volume provide a broad range of different critical perspectives on these issues, and the chapters are arranged in dialogue with each other to provide the reader with a rounded view of the legacy of Max-Neef. This book is vital reading for all those interested in ecological economics, environmental economics, development economics, methodology and philosophy of economics, and heterodox economics.




Economics and Reality


Book Description

'No reality please. We're economists'. There is a wide spread belief that modern economics is irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. In a controversial and original study, Tony Lawson argues that the root of this irrelevance is in the failure of economists to find methods and tools which are appropriate for the social world it addresses




Public Priority Setting: Rules and Costs


Book Description

At present we observe a decreasing role for the state in many areas where it used to be prominent. Amidst severe budgetary cuts, the state and its organs are confronted with ever louder calls for efficiency in public office (`value for money') and public performance. Simultaneously we see in many democratic welfare states the rise of new institutional forms and social organizations responding to new public priorities. Phenomena like privatization and de-regulation, new forms of regulation and self-regulation, and the rise of special issue groups are an expression of this. This book seeks to provide order in some of today's issues and to offer analysis and explanation for selected topics. The book opens with contributions on the importance of concepts of present-day institutional economics interpreting modern governmental behavior and organization. Subsequent chapters deal with new developments in various fields such as environmental management and conservation, political legitimacy, or the new roles for covenants. Audience: This volume will be of interest for scholars in the fields of public service, government studies and adjacent branches of economics, political science and law.