RG

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Society and the economy

KEY THINKER

Douglass North (1920–)

BEFORE

1904 US economist Thorstein Veblen argues for the primacy of institutions in explanations of economic performance.

1934 US economist John Commons states that economies are complex webs of institutions and divergent interests.

AFTER

1993 US economist Avner Greif uses game theory to analyze the historical development of institutions that allowed trade to develop.

2001 Turkish-US economist Daron Acemoğlu explains institutional differences between countries in terms of their colonial origins.

Standard economics assumes the existence of markets. It also assumes that governments ...

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