Description
Book SynopsisThe aim of this book is to re-establish custom in economics. Current economic theorizing largely neglects the customary forces that underpin market exchange. Economic sociologists have stressed this repeatedly by referring to the ''embeddedness'' of all kinds of economic processes. It is true that market processes do hinge on elements of custom, but custom is in turn moulded by economic processes. This other causal direction needs more attention than it has hitherto received. The way modern institutional economics has developed points to the same deficiency. Institutional economics initially tried to analyse economic institutions as arising from market processes and competition whilst avoiding reference to all elements of custom, but it became increasingly clear that answers obtained in this fashion were critically dependent on tacit underlying assumptions about the customary infrastructure.Another current strand of thought, notably originating with game theory, has tried to understand
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. A Web of Reinforcements ; 2. Entitlements and Obligations ; 3. Smooth and Lumpy Changes ; 4. Fuzziness ; 5. Adaptive Custom ; 6. Clarity ; 7. Rules and Schemata ; 8. Rule Preference ; 9. Attribution and Motivation ; 10. Custom and Style ; 11. Property ; 12. The Law ; 13. The Firm ; 14. The Division of Labour ; 15. The Texture of Custom ; Appendices ; A Notes on Method ; B The Principle of Relativity ; C Hume's Law ; References ; Index
