Ludwig von Mises argued that capital goods were 'conservative elements' that constrain future production decisions. Similarly, social capital and institutions also constrain future production decisions. These insights are applied to the institutional transformation of the post-Reconstruction...

This essay examines economic stagnation by extending the argument that capital goods and "conservative elements" to the analysis of social capital and institutions in the post-Reconstruction South. It is argued that the structure of social capital that developed in the South was inappropriate to...