The attempt to explain rule variation using rational choice models faces serious problems. An important range of phenomena, such as cooperation, cartels, and more generally the rules which organize economic activity, may need to be approached on a case-by-case basis. This necessitates the...

Norms established through the process of socialization, perhaps voluntarily accepted or affirmed, perhaps building on certain genetic predispositions, provide part of the framework within which individuals pursue their self interest. Intellectually defensible microeconomic analysis, in its...

The argument of this paper reduces to two key propositions. First, legal rules differ where technologies and endowments are similar. Second, diversity matters, in the sense that it exercises an independent influence on economic structure and rates of economic growth, and in ways that have not...

Institutions affect economic outcomes, but variation in them cannot be directly linked to environmental factors such as geography, climate, or technological availabilities. Game theoretic approaches, based as they typically are on foraging only assumptions, don't provide an adequate foundation...

Galbraith, John Kenneth (15 Oct, 1908-29 Apr. 2006), economist and author, was born in Iona Station, Ontario (Canada) to Archibald Galbraith and Sarah Catherine Kendall. Galbraith, who advanced and reinterpreted institutionalist and Keynesian traditions in economics while promoting a liberal and...

A characteristic feature of economic development is the ever changing structure ofconsumption patterns. Reducing the explanation of this phenomenon to changingprices, finally caused by changes in the availability of goods (or characteristics),would neglect a major force driving this change, i.e....