Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance -

Douglass C. North

Cambridge University Press

2004

152 páginas

5h 4m

ISBN-10: 0521397340

Continuing his groundbreaking analysis of economic structures, Douglass North here develops an analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies, both a given time and over time. Institutions exist, he argues, due to the uncertainties involved in human interaction; they are the constraints devised to structure that interaction. Yet institutions vary widely in their consequences for economic performance; some economies develop institutions that produce growth and development, while other economies develop institutions that produce stagnation.
North first explores the nature of institutions and explains the role of transaction and production costs in their development. The second part of the book deals with isntitutional change. Institutions create the incentive structure in an economy, and organizations will be created to take advantage of the opportunities provided within a given institutional framework. North argues that the kinds of skills and knowledge fostered by the structure of an economy will shape the direction of change and gradually alter the institutional framework. He then explains how institutional development may lead to a path-dependent pattern to development.
In the final part of the book, North explains the implications of this analysis for economic theory and economic history. He indicates how institutional analysis must be incorporated into neoclassical theory and explores the potential for the construction of a dynamic of a long-term economic change.