Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL
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Опубликовано на портале: 05-02-2003
Douglass C. North
Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL.
1994.
A theory of institutional change is essential for further progress in the social
sciences in general and economics in particular, because neo-classical theory (and
other theories in the social scientist's tool bag) at present cannot satisfactorily
account for the very diverse performance of societies and economies both at a moment
of time and over time. North sketches out a framework for analyzing institutions.
This framework builds on the economic theory of choice subject to constraints. However
it incorporates new assumptions about both the constraints that individuals face
and the process by which they make choices within those constraints. Among the traditional
neoclassical assumptions that are relaxed are those of costless exchange, perfect
information, and unlimited cognitive capabilities. Too many gaps still remain in
our understanding of this new approach to call it a theory. North presents a set
of definitions, principles, and a structure, which provide much of the scaffolding
necessary to develop a theory of institutional change.
Опубликовано на портале: 05-02-2003
Douglass C. North
Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL.
1994.
The performance of an economy is a function of both the institutions and technology
developed in a society but the literature on productivity is devoid of any discussion
of the institutional foundations of the economy. Instead that literature and the
growth accounting quantitative foundations of that analysis focus on the significance
of the capital stock, technology, R&D, and savings in the rate of growth of productivity.
The new growth economics literature equally equates growth with human capital investment,
physical capital, savings and sometimes as a negative function of population growth.
The argument of this essay is that productivity increases result from both improvements
in human organization and from technological developments.
The Historical Evolution of Polities [статья]
Опубликовано на портале: 05-02-2003
Douglass C. North
Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL.
1994.
This essay elaborates, extends and modifies a "Neo-Classical Theory of the State"
(North, 1981, Ch. 3) in three directions: 1. it incorporates time into the model;
2. it is explicitly concerned with the perceptions- -the belief systems--that determine
choices; and 3. it relates the belief systems to the external environment of the
players; both the past environmental experiences that are incorporated in cultural
conditioning and the present environmental experiences incorporated in "local learning".
Transaction Costs Through Time [статья]
Опубликовано на портале: 05-02-2003
Douglass C. North
Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL.
1994.
An economic definition of transaction costs is the costs of measuring what is being
exchanged and enforcing agreements. In the larger context of societal evolution they
are all the costs involved in human interaction over time. It is this larger context
that North explores in this essay. The concept is a close kin to the notion of social
capital advanced by James Coleman (1990) and applied imaginatively to studying the
differential patterns of Italian regional development by Robert Putnam in Making
Democracy Work (1993). This essay, therefore, is a study in economic history which
focuses on the costs of human coordination and cooperation through time which I regard
as the key dilemma of societies past, present and future.
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