Description
Book SynopsisGeoffrey Hodgson aims to demonstrate that social institutions play a central role in moulding preferences and guiding action.
Trade Review"I think that this is a superb book ... what Hodgson has done is to bring together a wide range of themes, and weave them together in a particularly persuasive way. It is a must read for economists predisposed to question contemporary orthodoxy."
Richard R. Nelson, Review of Political Economy
"This is a landmark work in the evolution of institutional economics."
Public Choice
"This book is an excellent read. Written with great care, refreshing intellectual honesty and with a wide canvas of the relevant literature it should be on the “essential” reading lists of all final year and post-graduate economics students. It will also be of great interest to students of the other social sciences who would like a point of entry to the inner mysteries of the faith."
Norman Clark, University of Sussex
Table of ContentsPART 1 PRELUDE: Introduction and Outline; On Methodology and Assumptions. PART 2 A FAREWELL TO `ECONOMIC MAN': Behind Methodological Individualism; The Maximisation Hypothesis; The Rationalist Conception of Action; Action and Institutions. PART 3 ELEMENTS OF AN INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS: Contracts and Property Rights; Markets as Institutions; Firms and Markets; Expectations and the Limits to Keynes; Directions and Policy Implications.
