Economics as a Process: Essays in the New Institutional Economics

The essays in this book are all concerned with exploring approaches alternative to the conventional or 'neoclassical' paradigm. Among the schools of thought represented are transaction-cost economics; evolutionary theories; modern 'Austrian' economics; law and economics; reliability theory; and the game-theory approach to the economics of social institutions. The essays are united not by a single topic but by a coherent set of themes - themes best described under the heading of 'the new institutional economics'. These include an interest in economic processes as well as states of equilibrium, a sensitivity to the limits and contours of human rationality, and an emphasis on the various sorts of social institutions that aid and inform economic action. But the essays are not solely methodological or critical. They also include substantive essays that illustrate 'the new institutional economics' in practice.