"The initial objective of the paper is to describe the way in which the term 'New Institutional Economics' (NIE) emerged in the literature and became the designation for a new field concerned with the study of various analytical techniques designed for the exploration of institutional phenomena....

It is first shown that Oskar Lange's claim to have invalidated Ludwig von Mises's contention of the impossibility of rational economic activity in a socialist economy is neither logically nor essentially convincing. Furthermore, the Mises objection applies also in case of Jaroslav Vanek's...