Institutional economics: perspectives and methods in pursuit of a better world

Table of Contents
Introduction: the institutionalist tradition in economics
CHARLES J. WHALEN

PART I PERSPECTIVES

1 Institutions, technology, and instrumental value: a reassessment of the Veblenian dichotomy
WILLIAM T. WALLER

2 Reasonable value: John R. Commons and the Wisconsin tradition
CHARLES J. WHALEN

3 Market society and the institutional theory of Karl Polanyi
MICHELE CANGIANI

4 Grappling with an ever-changing economy: the evolution of post-Keynesian institutionalism
CHARLES J. WHALEN

5 Culture, gender, and feminist institutionalism
JANICE PETERSON

6 Environmental sustainability in social context: an original institutionalist perspective
RICHARD V. ADKISSON

PART II METHODS

7 Investigational economics: a practitioner’s guide to economics in the tradition of John R. Commons
THOMAS KEMP

8 Institutional impact analysis: the situation, structure, and performance framework
SARAH S.H. KLAMMER, ERIC A. SCORSONE, AND CHARLES J. WHALEN

9 Myth busting: institutional economics and mythopoetics
MARY V. WRENN

10 Storytelling and institutional change: the power and pitfalls of economic narratives
CHARLES J. WHALEN

11 System dynamics, data science, and institutional analysis
MICHAEL J. RADZICKI

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.