Market and government failures in historical institutional analysis by Douglass C. North and Avner Greif Cover Image

Zawodności rynków i państwa w historycznej analizie instytucjonalnej Douglassa C. Northa i Avnera Greifa
Market and government failures in historical institutional analysis by Douglass C. North and Avner Greif

Author(s): Karol Fjałkowski
Subject(s): Economic history, Economic policy, Government/Political systems, Financial Markets
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika
Keywords: Douglass C. North; Avner Greif; markets and governments; economic theory;

Summary/Abstract: Economic historians Douglass C. North and Avner Greif use the tools on the New Institutional Economics and Game Theory and draw the attention of economists to the fact that both markets and governments are institutional constructs created by opportunistic individuals and groups with different interests. They show how exceptionally many are the social and cultural conditions of credible commitment which are necessary for the emergence of efficient markets and government. In contrast with standard economic approaches, from the historical-institutional point of view it is the efficiency of some markets and governments which should be treated as “deviations” from a norm and states of “failure” – as a starting points in analyses of markets and governments. This observation bears important implications both for contemporary institutional engineering and for economic theory, and even for teaching economics.

  • Issue Year: 6/2010
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 57-70
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish