Understanding the process of economic change / Douglass C. North.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

North, Douglass C. (Douglass Cecil)

Contributor:

Class of 1939 Fund.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the Western world

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evolutionary economics.

Economics--Sociological aspects.

Economics.

Institutional economics.

Physical Description:

xi, 187 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2005]

Summary:

In this landmark work, a Nobel-prize-winning economist develops a new way of understanding the process by which economies change. Douglass North inspired a revolution in economic history a generation ago by demonstrating that economic performance is determined largely by the kind and quality of institutions that support markets. As he showed in two now classic books that inspired the New Institutional Economics (today a subfield of economics), property rights and transaction costs are fundamental determinants. Here, North explains how different societies arrive at the institutional infrastructure that greatly determines their economic trajectories.

North argues that economic change depends largely on "adaptive efficiency," a society's effectiveness in creating institutions that are productive, stable, fair, and broadly accepted-and, importantly, flexible enough to be changed or replaced in response to political and economic feedback. While adhering to his earlier definition of institutions as the formal and informal rules that constrain human economic behavior, he extends his analysis to explore the deeper determinants of how these rules evolve and how economies change. Drawing on recent work by psychologists, he identifies intentionality as the crucial variable and proceeds to demonstrate how intentionality emerges as the product of social learning and how it then shapes the economy's institutional foundations and thus its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.

Understanding the Process of Economic Change accounts not only for past institutional change but also for the diverse performance of present-day economies. This major work is therefore also an essential guide to improving the performance of developing countries.

Contents:

Chapter 1 An Outline of the Process of Economic Change 1

Part I The Issues Involved in Understanding Economic Change 9

Chapter 2 Uncertainty in a Non-ergodic World 13

Chapter 3 Belief Systems, Culture, and Cognitive Science 23

Chapter 4 Consciousness and Human Intentionality 38

Chapter 5 The Scaffolds Humans Erect 48

Chapter 6 Taking Stock 65

Part II The Road Ahead 81

Chapter 7 The Evolving Human Environment 87

Chapter 8 The Sources of Order and Disorder 103

Chapter 9 Getting It Right and Getting It Wrong 116

Chapter 10 The Rise of the Western World 127

Chapter 11 The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 146

Chapter 12 Improving Economic Performance 155

Chapter 13 Where Are We Going? 166.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-181) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1939 Fund.

ISBN:

0691118051

OCLC:

55067487