Institutional Economics Perspectives and Methods in Pursuit of a Better World

Institutional economics is a sociocultural discipline and policy science which draws on the idea that economies are best understood through an appreciation of history, real-world institutions, and socioeconomic interrelations. This book brings together leading institutionalists to examine the tradition?s most essential perspectives and methods.

The contributors to the book draw on a broad range of institutional thought from the classic work of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Karl Polanyi, to the newer viewpoints of post-Keynesian institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, and environmental institutionalism. Methods range from frameworks used to analyze public policy and institutional change, to modes of analysis including myth busting, historically grounded narratives, and computer-based simulations. Each chapter surveys the origins, development, key features, applications, and frontiers of a particular viewpoint, framework, or mode of analysis. Due consideration is given to both strengths and weaknesses; and woven into the chapters is attention to core institutionalist concepts, including technology, institutions, culture, and complexity.

The book provides economists with promising starting points for new research, students with contributions refreshingly in touch with the real world, and policymakers and social scientists with compelling reasons for engaging further with the institutionalist tradition.

Introduction. the institutionalist tradition in economics PART I. PERSPECTIVES (1) Institutions, technology, and instrumental value: a reassessment of the Veblenian dichotomy (2) Reasonable value: John R. Commons and the Wisconsin tradition (3) Market society and the institutional theory of Karl Polanyi (4) Grappling with an ever-changing economy: the evolution of post-Keynesian institutionalism (5) Culture, gender, and feminist institutionalism (6) Environmental sustainability in social context: an original institutionalist perspective PART II. METHODS (7) Investigational economics: a practitioner’s guide to economics in the tradition of John R. Commons (8) Institutional impact analysis: the situation, structure, and performance framework (9) Myth busting: institutional economics and mythopoetics (10) Storytelling and institutional change: the power and pitfalls of economic narratives (11) System dynamics, data science, and institutional analysis

Charles J. Whalen is Research Fellow at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, University at Buffalo, USA. For over three decades he has contributed to institutional economics, national economic policy discussions, equitable regional development, and worker engagement in business decision-making. This is his fifth book.