Institutions: Uncertainty in Definition of the Term. A Brief Look at the History: 1890-1930
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/EQUIL.2014.026Keywords
institution, behaviour, uncertainty, definitionAbstract
Despite the fact that the significance of institutional economics is commonly recognized, the uncertainty of basic concepts of institutional economics – institutions – and its investigation sphere is widely mentioned today.
The paper aims to trace the process of evolution in the understanding of the notion of institution, from its spontaneous mentions and pragmatic use of the so-called pre-institutional era to the desire to understand and to define the essence of the institution in the period of early institutionalism.
Based on the analyses of appropriate literature, the paper tries to study how the term “institution” was understood at the three initial historical period of its usage. For this purpose, the first part of the paper analyses how the term “institution” was used at the start by religious figures in VII and XIII centuries and then by thinkers in XVII-XVIII centuries which are considered as a pre-history of the term “institution” wide usage. The second part of the study is focused on the investigation how the term was understood by immediate predecessors of institutional economics – German Historical School, and the third part of the paper investigates scholars-institutionalists’ efforts in the intellectual context on the period 1890-1930.References
Arrow, K. (1974). The Limits of Organization. New York: Norton.
Aquinas, T. (1256). Summa Theologica, vol. 1. Retrieved form http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/aquinas-the-summa-theologica-of-st-thomas-aquinas-part-i-qq-i-xxvi-vol-1 (14.07.2014).
Aquinas, T. (1274). Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2.
Bede Saint (1916). The Eccesiastical History of the English Nation (and Lives of Saints and Bishops). London & Toronto: J. M.Dent&Sons.
Bucher, C. (1901). Industrial Evolution. Original Published United States.
Commons, R. J. (1893). The Distribution of Wealth. New York: Macmillan.
Commons, R. J. (1894). Social Reform and the Church. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Commons, R. J. (1896). Proportional Representation. New York: Crowell.
Commons, R. J. (1907). Races and Immigrants in America. New York: Macmillan.
Commons, R. J. (1921). Trade Unionism and Labor Problems. Boston: Ginn and Co.
Commons R. J. (1924). Legal Foundations of Capitalism. New York: Macmillan.
Commons R. J. (1931). Institutional Economics. American Economic Review, 21.
Furubotn, E. G. & Richter, R. (2007). Institutions and Economic Theory: The Contribution of the New Institutional Economics. Michigan.
Hamilton, D. (1962). Why Is Institutional Economics Not Institutional?. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 21(3).
Hamilton, W. H. (1919). The Institutional Approach to Economic Theory. American Economic Review, 9(1).
Harris, A. L. (1932). Types of Institutionalism. Journal of Political Economy, 4(6).
Hawtrey, R. (1925). Review of Knapp’s The Theory of Money. Economic Journal, 35.
Hohfeld, O. N. (1913). Some Fundamental Legal Concepts as Applied in the Study of Primitive Law. Yale Law Journal, 23.
Hodgson, M. G. (1998). On the evolution of Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary economics. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 22.
Hodgson, M. G. (2003). John R. Commons and the Foundations of Institutional Economics. Journal of Economic Issues, 37(3).
Hodgson, M. G. (2006). What Are Institutions?. Journal of Economic Issues, 40(1).
Hollingsworth, J. R. (2000). Doing Institutional Analysis: implications for the study of innovations. Review of International Political Economy, 7(4).
Hobbes, T. (1660). The Leviathan. Retrieved form http://oregonstate.edu/instruc t/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html (14.07.2014).
Hume, D. (1739). A Treatise of Human Nature, Reprinted from the Original Edition in three volumes and edited, with an analytical index, by L.A. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1896). Retrieved form http://oll.libertyfund.org (14.07.2014).
List, F. (1909). The National System of Political Economy. London: Longmans, Green&Co.
Leftwich, A. (2006). What are Institutions? IPPG Briefing Paper no. one, IDPM, School of Environment & Development University of Manchester.
Knapp, G. F. (1924). The State Theory of Money. London: Masmillan & Company Limited.
Marshall, A. (2000). Principles of Economics. London: Macmillan and Co.
Rutherford, M. (1983). J. R.Commons’s Institutional Economics. Journal of Economic Issues, 17(3).
Rutherford, M. (2001). Institutional Economics: Then and Now. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(3).
Rutherford, M. (2008). Institutionalism Between the Wars. Retrieved form http://www.univie.ac.at/strv-vwl/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/institutiona lism_between_the_wars.pdf (14.06.2014).
Searle, J. R. (2005). What is an Institution?. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1(1).
Smith, A. (1843). An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson.
Sombart, W. (1909). Socialism and the Social Movement. London: J.M.Dent & CO, New York: E.P.Dutton &
CO MCMIX.
Sombart, W (2001). The Jews and Modern Capitalism. Ontario: Batoche Books Limtied.
Spencer, H. (1898). The Principles of Sociology, 3 vols. Retrieved form http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/spencer-the-principles-of-sociology-3-vols-1898 (24.06.2014).
Spencer, H. (1891). Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative, 3 vols. Retrieved form http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/spencer-essays-scientific-political-and-speculative-vol-1--5 (7.07.2014).
Schmoller, G. (1881). The Idea of Justice in Political Economy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 4. Retrieved form http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/schmoller/justice (7.07.2014).
Schmoller, G. (1900). Grundriß der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre. Leipzig: Erster Teil, Duncker&Humblot.
Schmoller, G. (1911), Volkswirtschaft, Volkswirtschaftlehre und methode. In: J. Conrad, L. Elster, W. Lexis, & E. Loening (Eeds.). Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, Vol. 8. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1926). Gustav v. Schmoller und die Probleme von heute, Schmollers Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung. Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft, 50.
The Historicity of Economics: Continuities and Discontinuities of Historical Thought in 19th and 20th Century Economics (2002), H. N. Heinoh & B. Schefold, Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Veblen, T. (1898). Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 12.
Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Veblen, T. (1917). An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of its Perpetuation. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Veblen, T. (2001). The Engineers and the Price System. Ontario: Batoche Books, Kitchener.
Veblen, T. (1904). The Theory of Business Enterprise. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Vico, G. (1948). The New Science, New York: Cornell University Press, ITHACA. Retrieved form https://ia600302.us. archive.org/23/items/newscienceofgiam030 174mbp/newscienceofgiam030174mbp.pdf (4.08.2014).
Williamson, O. E. (2000). The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 412
Number of citations: 0