► Understanding emergence and evolution is key to analyze the nature of institutions. ► Conceiving institutions as equilibria of beliefs allows exploring the role of rationality. ► Institutions might also be seen as the result of strategies by agents or coalitions. ► The dynamic of law...

This paper proposes an analysis of the emergence and evolution of institutional frameworks. It explains the causes, process, and outcome of institutional evolution. We first describe the institutional framework as a multilevel system at the bottom of which several “local and flexible”...

This paper surveys alternative approaches to the emergence and evolution of institutions. The challenge is to develop frameworks capable of capturing both stability and change. We follow a "descaling" approach to show how founding assumptions about economics--namely, alternative assumptions...

This paper surveys alternative approaches to the emergence and evolution of institutions. The challenge is to develop frameworks capable of capturing both stability and change. We follow a “descaling” approach to show how founding assumptions about economics—namely, alternative assumptions...

Private institutions are complementary, both to contracts and the public and general institutions of a society, in that they allow agents to collectively coordinate (and so benefit from economies of scale, from learning effects, and from management of externalities), while avoiding over high...