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Using two questionnaires, the first applied in Brazil in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second applied in August 2020, when the pandemic's effects were best known, the authors analyze society's perception of fair price and its influence on firms' actions in times of pandemic, through the lens of neoclassical and institutional theories. They also suggest if this perception causes consumers to punish companies that do not respect the informal rules of society. Together, the questionnaires provide evidence that society, through informal rules, plays a fundamental role in influencing the actions of firms. Finally, the analyses suggest that institutional theory produces better interpretations of society's behavior regarding its perception of fair price. This understanding could contribute to firms making more assertive decisions by mitigating possible risks that affect their brand and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how changing economic structures and the development of the financialized business enterprise has affected labor relations and distribution under the stage of money manager capitalism as described by Hyman Minsky and Charles Whalen. Key to this transformation, I argue, is the development of what David Weil refers to as the fissured workplace and what David Peetz calls "not there capitalism." In this context, the business enterprise operates as a network, with commands emanating from the center to be carried out by the periphery. Labor, then, contracts with these peripheral nodes, separating them from key economic decision-making processes. This reduction in power has significant implications for distribution. Using Christopher Brown's power-based approach to the institutional theory of distribution, I then examine these impacts, especially as it pertains to workers in the gig economy before concluding with an overview of potential policy recommendations to correct these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This inquiry examines the role of federal policy on gender inequality using the principles of institutional adjustment in the context of Veblenian dichotomy of habit formation. Specifically, the authors assert that Social Security, though exclusive at its inception in 1935, has undergone significant institutional adjustment, providing the institutional space to increase economic security for older women and reduce gender inequality overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of instinct theory—the core of Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary methodology—waned with the rise of behavioral psychology in the 1920s, and resurges with the revival of evolutionary psychology in the 1980s. This study reexamines Charles Darwin's theories of natural and sexual selection within Veblen's theory. By tracing the origin of emulation, this study explores the human struggle for existence at both inter-species and individual levels, enhancing our understanding of Veblen's theory as rooted in Darwinism and reinterpreted within Geoffrey Hodgson's concept of emergence. Differing from Clarence Ayres' dichotomy, analysis resituates Veblen's instinct theory within contemporary evolutionary psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth imperative characteristic of consumer capitalism rests on continuous mass production, fueled by fossil fuels, legitimized by the assumption that wants are infinite. Institutionalists have generally attributed growth to technology, a manifestation of the community's knowledge base applied to increasing throughput to produce goods. That same technology, however, may precipitate degrowth, a decline in the throughput making growth possible. The first section attributes the Great Acceleration to continuous mass production, requiring the corporate form of business enterprise. The second section explains the degrowth movement focusing on the work of George Kallis. Degrowth arose in response to the adverse effects of growth, providing an ecological critique of mainstream economics. Degrowth advocates minimizing throughput. The third section briefly traces the evolution of institutionalists' attitudes towards growth, attitudes guided by the principles of instrumental valuation and social provisioning. The fourth section offers a conclusion, focusing on pecuniary emulation pushing people to live at the pecuniary standard, a standard that continues to rise with increases in throughput and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the future of the university? Many have attempted to unpack what emerging technologies, political pressures, and social scrutiny can do to the status and innovative capacity of universities. While much of the literature has focused on either documenting innovation over practice in research/teaching techniques, or critical reflections on how university business models and academic labor are under threat, less has been debated on the impacts and processes of such changes from a systemic institutional perspective. This article develops a three-fold social-institutional framework to explore the process, purpose, and positioning of changes in knowledge production. I use the case of the economics discipline to explore how institutional ceremonial values, the policing of knowledge creation, and academic cultures as a hierarchical system of prestige can indicate potential structural change. Existing tensions between instrumental innovations and traditional ceremonial aspects that permeate both the university system and the economics discipline suggest two hypotheses to understand future change: (i) a ceremonial encapsulation of new technologies by old structures, exacerbating existing inequalities and monopolies within expertise positioning; or (ii) the rise of new and inclusive cultures within the principles of epistemic democratization and pluralism, co-existing with a new economic and social model of knowledge [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first comprehensive account of Veblen's views on socialism. While Veblen had strong socialist sympathies, his views on socialism and its feasibility shifted slightly during his lifetime. The article also connects Veblen's opinions on socialism with his theoretical analysis, including his dichotomy between pecuniary and industrial employments. This dichotomy is consistent with his socialism, but the dichotomy itself is open to criticism. Veblen's stress on the habit- and community-based nature of knowledge could raise questions about its transferability and tacitness, and about the possibility or otherwise of comprehensive socialist economic planning, which relies on the gathering together much relevant knowledge. It is noted that John Dewey also held a habit- and community-based view of knowledge, and he became a socialist in the 1930s. But others have suggested that the tacit nature of much relevant knowledge makes comprehensive socialist planning highly problematic. This leaves open the question whether Veblen's socialism was consistent with an adequate understanding of the nature and role of knowledge. Veblen's views on socialism are both revealing and enigmatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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All science makes an attempt to "carve nature at its joints" to study aspects of reality in isolation. Then the insights gained must be reconnected with the whole of nature. This reconnection is difficult and problematic. Additionally, there are gaps in our understanding regarding the nature of the reconnection. This leaves gaps in our understanding. Filling these gaps sometimes requires what Jacob Bronowski called "leaps of imagination." This is precisely where creativity comes into play in all science. This paper explores the problems of reconnection and the creative ways we employ "leaps of imagination" in Institutional Economic theorizing. These are both epistemological and methodological problems that occur and are unavoidable in all science. These gaps are the missing middles and "leaps of imagination" are the magical thinking. I wish to explore the attempts in institutional economics to fill one of our most persistent gaps; that is the way individual habits and routines become social habits and routines. This is fundament to the institutionalist theory of behavior, the evolution of institutions, and the process of how they change. Thorstein Veblen's attempt to fill the gap is discussed as is Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjøn Knudsen's attempt to fill additional gaps in the discussion of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Franklin Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms" and "Second Bill of Rights" are steeped in the empirical realism of Original Institutional Economics (OIE). FDR's intent was to supplant elements of the self-destructive illogic of capitalism with instrumentalist policies strongly reflective of OIE. Influenced during his first administration by Rexford Tugwell and other institutionalists, FDR's proposed remedies for a structurally malfunctioning economy continued to exhibit enduring OIE influences throughout his four terms in office, culminating with the Four Freedoms (1941) and the Second Bill of Rights (1944). Alarming shifts in the political economy landscape of contemporary America suggest the need for an ongoing examination of the role of countervailing power in reversing the terrifying trend toward authoritarianism. Rugged, boorish individualism and negative, faddish personal freedoms saturate American culture paradoxically propping up past-binding institutions of corporate hegemony which undercut substantive positive freedoms and democracy. The time is nigh for renewed calls for a Second Bill of Rights. This article explores Tugwell's thoughts on basic rights and responsibilities of citizens/businessmen and their influence on Roosevelt and reciprocal influences of Roosevelt on Tugwell as part and parcel of the OIE legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous-mass production technology, widely adopted in the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries, enabled businesses to vastly increase output. Thorstein Veblen was among the first to observe the business response: how to prevent production from exceeding what the market could profitably absorb? How to prevent losses? How to increase profits? Continuous-mass production introduced consumer capitalism, applying the technology to consumer goods, creating the necessity of increasing consumer demand, making imperative adopting the corporate form of business enterprise. Continuous-mass production has accentuated a number of paradoxes, some of which were addressed by Veblen, Polanyi, and Keynes. Those paradoxes include the prospect of depression, the rise of dynastic ambitions channeling the increased output into militarism, financial innovations involving identifying and liquefying consumer assets to provide credit and expand demand, laying the foundation for the financialization of the economy. Financialization culminated in the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), requiring massive government intervention. The GFC gave rise to Modern Monetary theory, overcoming the limits of the market economy. And the environmental crisis resulting from the commodification of everything, accentuated by applying continuous mass production to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, combined with a belief in infinite growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than fifty years of guerrilla warfare, Colombia is enduring a peace process with the most important guerrilla group through a peace agreement signed by the end of 2016. Despite this achievement, the basic conditions determined by John Fagg Foster for institutional adjustment were not fulfilled, affecting the implementation of the accord and facing strong opposition from conservative sectors. The resistance of the institutional matrix of this country's elites shows the difficulties and resistance to even moderate institutional changes in a society with a deep divide in political, social, and economic conditions. The case is unique, despite the obvious economic and social advantages of the peace deal and reveals the deep crucial role of traditional and ceremonial institutions in blocking social progress. The pandemic and the more conservative political orientation of the present government just worsened the difficulties amidst the current conditions, increasing the distance from the requirements established by J. Fagg Foster. An evaluation of the current process is presented and conclusions about possible outcomes are explored given the present upheaval and social movements we endure today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream economics reduces concepts of social capital and civil society to means for profit and competition, reproducing inequality and power. Alternative approaches identify social capital with state-society synergy relations and generalized networks of cooperation, which enable the civil society to promote solidarity, democracy, public policy, social change, and welfare. Similarly, Post-Keynesian Institutionalism recognizes the creative role of the state, democratic institutions, and civic values. However, questions remain regarding how social groups and the state interact and promote change. This article seeks to fill that void by connecting these analyses with the literature on the commons and participatory and deliberative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. food industry displays the ugly side of capitalism, manifesting numerous examples of what Thorstein Veblen termed "industrial sabotage." The evolution of agricultural production from small family farms to huge industrial agribusinesses has been accompanied by toxic pesticide and herbicide use, unsafe industrial meat, and unsustainable farming practices. Meanwhile, industrial food production shifted diets from primarily whole foods to mostly ultra-processed food-like substances. Ultra-processed food is designed to be addictive by incorporating copious amounts of sugar, salt, fat, and flavorings, fueling the obesity crisis in the process. The solutions to our food problems lie along the lines suggested by Veblen, and involve putting the productive people of society, especially farmers, back in charge of production, while empowering the common people and their communities. Furthermore, government agencies with teeth and a series of targeted regulations can deliver on the promise of countervailing power suggested by John Kenneth Galbraith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to shed more light on the effects of technological innovation on economic progress from the institutionalist perspective. Based on historical data on economic growth and technological changes in the United States, we question the assumption of mainstream economics that innovation, performed by profit-making enterprises, is a key source of productivity growth. The difference between the golden age and the period since suggests that economic progress is primarily determined by a successfully functioning institutional structure and progressive institutional changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A focus on institutions is shared by Régulation Theory and Institutional Economics although each holds a different view of the organization of the capitalist economy. It is argued that, despite the lack of definitional clarity of the term "institution," Régulation Theory provides "institutional insights" which could be usefully deployed by Institutional Economics. It is also posited that both heterodox traditions should more explicitly conceive of institutions to account for phenomena that transcend national borders, and to render explicit the social ontology underpinning an institution's conceptualization, otherwise the methodological usefulness of this analytical construct to elucidate social reality is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms and nations attempt to build their technological capabilities amidst co-existing systems of knowledge and a variety of institutions. This variety might in principle result in fragmented knowledge and learning systems with no easy adaptation, clear social connection, or shared idea of progress. High institutional variety environments may be innovative but offer an uncertain future environment in which individuals and firms act, and which can paralyze the search and learning process. This paper discusses the Ayres-Veblenian concept of institutional 'lag' and its links to institutional variety. Industrial policy is routinely used conceptually and administratively as a selection device to cull such institutional variety, for example, re-steering the health industry's knowledge and production context or integrating informality in social policy design. Policy selection can thus offer valuable framing contexts to build inference and judgments about evolutionary systems and technology products. Once an evolutionary and institutional perspective is employed however, 'lag' and 'progress' are technologically contingent. The paper concludes that both industrial analysis and economics' philosophical foundations may benefit from co-evolutionary and combinatorial approaches, and insights from a non-Western perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collapse is considered a breakup of institutions and entire socio-economies. Collapse has accompanied socio-economic history, but seems to have become more topical again in recent decades. We even face the danger of extinction of the human species, due to anthropocenic climate change, not the least based on failure of institutional arrangements. Uprooting migration and "failing states" have become topical as well. Mainstream economics seems to have no clue about all that, advising ever more good old "market-economy institutions." Evolutionary and institutional economics has focused on institutional emergence, evolution, and persistent structures, but still not so much on decline and collapse. I develop an endogenous explanation of institutional decline and collapse implied by the previous success of institutionalized cooperation and increasing (over-)complexity, which exceeds individual cognitive capacities. Institutional adaptability and problem-solving capacity then decline. Uneven distribution of cooperation gains will further cause social conflict and institutional ceremonialization, decline, and collapse. Collapse will not just be a symmetric reverse of emergence. Being subject to sunk costs during emergence, to habituation and normativation, institutions tend to display some hysteresis. The article adopts an evolutionary-institutional perspective, in order to conceptualize future modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutions of China's state-owned enterprises have deviated fundamentally from the principle of individual(istic) property rights. The paradox is that the enterprises appear to have performed well in terms of productivity and profitability. This article examines the institutions in the light of alternative theoretical perspectives. The central message is two-fold. First, regarding functionality, the long-term oriented institutions could be conducive to productive efficiency but could also be detrimental to allocative efficiency. Second, regarding credibility, the actual performance hinges on the appropriate match between the institutions and the broader developmental conditions. The efficiency attributes are thus found to be context-specific. Further discussion on the notion of context-specificity reveals that relative efficiency is conjunctural rather than structural in the determination of the functionality and credibility. In the spirit of Original Evolutionary and Institutional Economics, it is submitted that the attributes of relative efficiency are themselves subject to the particular "social valuation" of China's prevailing political-economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Veblen-Commons view of the business enterprise as going concern, the primary goal of the enterprise is to engage in sequential acts of production through time. To that end, intangible assets play a crucial role in providing a differential advantage, granting the owners an income stream separate from normal activity that more easily allows them to achieve this purpose. Therefore, understanding the business enterprise from a Veblen-Commons perspective requires first and foremost an understanding of the way in which such assets confer this differential advantage. In doing so, two things become clear: First, such assets are grounded in law and accounting, and as such, any discussion of them must include a discussion of how they emerge in a legal process and how accountants treat them on the balance sheet. Second, as the enterprise evolves, so too does the form of the differential advantage. This article incorporates both of these points to provide a clear, coherent framework of intangible assets within the business enterprise from a Veblen-Commons perspective that can be used to understand a financialized economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the issue of "technological unemployment" resulting from automation is the result of ceremonial encapsulation within the process of progressive institutional adjustment. While institutions of production have adjusted to account for new technological developments, institutions of distribution have not. As discussed here, the main cause of this lack of adjustment is a financialized economy, in which shareholder returns motivate and dominate economic decision making and activity. As a result, gains and benefits from technological advances exacerbate existing income inequality and reduces the power of labor. I discuss this issue in detail before explaining how progressive policies that divorce private wage-labor from access to the system of social provisioning may serve to smooth this process of institutional adjustment caused by the introduction of automated processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been developing "financial inclusion" since the 1990s so as to deal with financial exclusion, a problem that faces rural residents and small and micro enterprises as well as the poor. Analysis is conducted in light of John Foster's theory of institutional change, especially the three limiting conditions, which are, the availability of knowledge, people's capacity for understanding and adaptation, and the principle of minimal dislocation. Digital finance, introduced into China in the early 2000s, is thought to be the innovative and sustainable means of financial inclusion and was boldly encouraged with very loose regulation, especially before 2015. Many of the nontraditional providers of internet financial services, including nonbank digital payment, internet-based lending, crowd funding, and virtual coins, etc. had boomed like mushroom since 2013. While social permission has been granted to such well-intentioned but poorly understood social experiments, unprecedent internet financial chaos have emerged and spread raising serious social concern. Since 2015, new policy bundles have been developed in China, and the concept and practice of financial inclusion has been transformed greatly. As China is still facing challenges marching toward financial inclusion, the three limiting conditions must be carefully considered in formulating policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms turn traditional approaches of the firm, which relied on the wage relation to explain the major difference between firm and market, upside down and underline the advantages of coordination through organization over coordination through market. This study aims to propose a definition of the firm able to integrate, besides the integrated firm, also hybrid forms such as networks of subcontractor/subcontracting firms as well as atypical forms such as digital platforms. By reactivating the firm-boundary problem, this article suggests putting valorization by labor at the heart of the firm's decisions concerning integration. It suggests therefore a general definition of the firm as a techno-institutional center of capital valorization, provided that firms make profits by means of the appropriation of labor incorporated into their (productive, structural, intellectual) capital through institutional arrangements. By stressing the relation of production between the owners of the means of production and the direct producers, the approach of the firm supported here should allow to cover the different existing models of the firm, from the classical firm to hybrid models, around which the boundary debate has revolved, to digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The touchstone by which Thorstein Veblen evaluated an expenditure was "whether it furthers the life process taken impersonally." For Veblen, the economic problem involved the problem of social provisioning, the way a community provides for itself. To a large degree, social provisioning has been impeded by the system of conspicuous waste, a "scheme of properties, decencies, and standards of living, the economic motive of which is competitive spending." The system of conspicuous waste represents a cultural unfolding of conspicuous waste, prompted by the introduction of continuous-mass production in the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. Conspicuous waste refers to the allocation of resources, time, and effort that detract from the life process. Veblen rejected the idea that the system of conspicuous waste benefits society. For Veblen, the standard of living refers to that level of consumption at which people are expected to consume. Products that prove serviceable, however, may also serve as symbols of invidiousness. Veblen used the system of conspicuous waste to compare the diverse cultural responses of England and Germany to the same technology in the early twentieth century. The system, however, plays a central role in absorbing increases in output and maintaining profits. Whether it can continue to do so remains questionable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of socioeconomic exploitation often appears in heterodox economics, its use varies considerably and it is seldom given a well-developed conceptual foundation. The project of this article is to propose a foundation by drawing upon our species' history to uncover exploitation's causes and dynamics. Socioeconomic exploitation exists where political or economic power is used by some to gain advantage at others' expense. Its root force is found in human biology, the fact that as a socially-reproducing species, humans compete for mates, and exploitation of others can generate a competitive advantage. Social institutions direct and channel this competitiveness. Accordingly, during 97–98 percent of our species' existence, competitiveness was not expressed by accumulating material wealth and political power, but by being good warriors and foragers, being cooperative, and being generous. Socioeconomic exploitation accompanied the rise of civilization and the state, when metal-based weaponry enabled a few to gain control over society and ownership and control over the means of production, subjugating all others and appropriating their surplus. Although violence stood behind this exploitation, ideology served as the principal political tool for its maintenance. It is the force of ideology that clarifies why, even with free speech, free press, free assembly, and the franchise, exploitation continues to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the historical developments of the institutionalist theory of the business enterprise since the early 1900s in order to demonstrate its distinctive characteristics that are often overlooked or belittled by some institutional-evolutionary economists and most mainstream economists. I argue that the institutionalist theory is an evolving and emergent theory, which bears a reciprocal, evolutionary, and cumulative relationship between the business enterprise and society. The institutionalist theory is, therefore, suitable for the understanding of the real-world business enterprise as it can be modified and refined along with the evolution of capitalism. The article begins with a discussion of the present state of the institutionalist theory. The following section is devoted to the major contributions to the institutionalist theory situated in the evolution of U.S. capitalism. The penultimate section provides a critical discussion of new institutional and evolutionary approaches to the firm. The article concludes with a brief discussion as to what should be done for the further development of the institutionalist theory of the business enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleoanthropologists have taught us that, in the earliest Homo-human history, technology, human cognition, and social institutions influenced each other and evolved together. They remain integrated in our complex social institutions today. Robert Owen and Clarence Ayres emphasized the importance of the human-technology relationship. This article moves a step beyond Owen and Ayres by recognizing that humans are technology. Without the recognition of human technology, it is not possible to compare it with and evaluate how it should fit with other technologies. It is also not possible to adequately analyze and judge technological innovations, in general, without the use of social belief criteria. Furthermore, any technological comparisons and evaluations should recognize that decreases in production are needed in order to deal with climate change. Technological assessment has become more important given the vast and profound societal penetration of modern technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How markets and firms function is critically related to what knowledge and information is exchanged between whom, how quickly. Exchange of (symbolic) information needs to be properly institutionalized in order to be understood by others, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, cannot avoid being ambiguous to some degree as well (Dolfsma et al. 2011). Ambiguity allows for the dissent that allows for innovation in the broadest sense of the term. Institutionalization of communication is community-specific. The tension between institutionalization of and ambiguity in communication explains why innovations cannot depart too much from what is known and accepted in a community to be (ultimately) accepted as a legitimate novelty. The view of markets and firms as settings for institutionalized communication and knowledge exchange offers a perspective that institutional economists are well positioned for to offer insights on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs the number of rule recipients in order to explain the transformation of some customs into laws. The publication of rules may mark the reaching of the threshold number beyond which the spontaneous rule leaves room for the State intervention. In addition, the publication resolves a couple of questions that Hayek left unresolved. Examples are provided from ancient merchant customs and contemporary international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture matters for economic development. This postulate has been a main conceptual concern for “old” institutional economics (OIE) and has lately also been tested through neoclassically inspired econometric techniques. This conceptual foundation has been confirmed in several quantitative studies on developed countries, in particular cases from the USA, Germany, and Italy. In less developed regions with a wealth of cultural heritage, particularly in South-East Europe, this postulate is still an underexplored issue from the perspective of advanced econometric approaches. Our goal is to examine the impact of the so-called South-East European cultural corridors on welfare — and especially on total employment — at the local or regional level. Accounting for gross value added and sectoral specialization, we examine the effect of such corridors by considering the distance to a cultural corridor: namely, the East Trans-Balkan Road (crossing Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece) as an explanatory factor for regional development, particularly employment. Using the European University Institute (EUI) European Regional Dataset (ERD), as well as the geo-data from the Cultural Corridors of the South-East Europe website, we estimate a regression model using a 2SLS instrumental variable (IV) approach, with a pooled dataset at the NUTS 3 level (Eurostat) from 1980 to 2011. We then triangulate the results by using the distance to the cultural corridor concerned as a treatment effect in a propensity-score-matching and difference-in-differences exploratory analysis. The findings confirm the importance of distance to the cultural corridor under investigation as a strong predictor for local socio-economic development. The results further suggest that the slow evolution of culture over time is likely to lead to the gradual emergence of new geographical cultural centers and a new cultural path-dependence build-up of persistence chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern money theory is a conjecture concerning fiscal spending and the nature of money. I show that modern money theory provides two interesting insights into distributive justice that have not been addressed in the recent Anglo- American distributive justice literature: (i) that the nature of a sovereign fiat currency allows for some distributive conflicts to be avoided; and (ii) that recent Anglo-American distributive justice theories assume that the economy is at capacity. Based on this, I consider whether the policy results of modern money theory can help foster a sense of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since development is a process rather than an end-state, all countries are always in a constant state of change, regardless of their level of income. This article focuses on the challenges that affluent countries face today in shifting to a sustainable development path. These challenges include improving the quality of life, achieving environmental sustainability, and addressing inequality. In the United States in particular, these challenges haveincreasedin recent decades, despite significant economic growth. The neoclassical development model assumes that growth makes it easier to achieve sustainable development and that wellbeing rises with per capita income. We question these assumptions, and find a theory of economic development in institutional economics that better explains and accommodates sustainability. We draw on the work of many original institutionalist economists (OIE), and others working in this tradition, to analyze the challenges of sustainable development in affluent countries, especially in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inspired by Frederic ("Fred") S. Lee's theoretical contribution to institutional-heterodox economics, I make the case that the neoclassical price mechanism is not only flawed, but also irrelevant for the study of actual coordination mechanisms, hence the price mechanism -- as a theory as well as a way of thinking -- should be discarded. While this position was addressed by early institutionalists, starting with Thorstein Veblen, later institutionalists have not completely rejected the price mechanism. The sympathy for the price mechanism has prevented institutionalists (and other heterodox economists) from fully developing an alternative theoretical framework concerning how actual economic activities are organized. I, therefore, provide an institutionalist-heterodox framework of the provisioning process focusing on business enterprise activities. This framework shows how institutional economics becomes more refined and useful when it is married to other traditions in heterodox economics, in particular, Marxian, social, and post-Keynesian economics. Such an integrative approach is what Fred Lee showed through his work toward producing a better theory and policy for the underlying population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses institutional economics and social control of business. Topics discussed include institutionalism, advertising and salesmanship. Other topics such as unemployment, business organizations and consumer valuations are also discussed. Business strategy and competition are also mentioned.

Understanding the complexity of institutional change is a necessary step in gaining deeper knowledge of economic performance over time, and it is one of the main challenges in the research agenda of institutionalism. Institutional change can be studied using a variety of theoretical approaches. We study some of the main approaches to institutional change in original economic institutionalism and new institutional economics. First, after comparing the approaches of Émile Durkheim and Thorstein Veblen, we focus on the contributions of the instrumental value theory and other original institutional traditions in the study of institutional change. Second, new institutional economics improved on the weak points of rational choice institutionalism regarding institutional change and incorporated the “institutions-as-rules” approach (Douglass North) and the “institutions-as-equilibria” approach (Avner Greif, Masahiko Aoki). We analyze both approaches to institutional change. Furthermore, we present an updated nonintegral overview of approaches to institutional change, show several interconnections between original and new institutionalisms, and conclude that the dialogue between the different theories of institutional change is relevant and beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I analyze the evolution of trout recreational fisheries with the objective of identifying possible factors that might be driving current controversies in biodiversity policy reforms on the governance of alien and invasive species. Findings suggest that trout species have attained a cultural status, which makes it difficult to have them eradicated without facing stiff resistance from the trout-dependent sector. Results suggested that a process of leisure augmentation through environmental greed underpinned the introduction and continuance of spreading trout. With this process came also the development of a complex set of institutions that protected trout since they served an honorific role. My findings also suggest that the Ayresian thesis that all ceremonial systems are past-binding could be relaxed because ceremonial interests also envision alternative futures that can entrench and further protect ceremonial systems. To that end, these ceremonial interests facilitate path-breaking, but harmful institutional change. I extend Paul Dale Bush's concept of institutional spaces by assigning faces to the concept, resulting in expansion of possible institutional adjustment configurations. I find that this reorganization of Bush's concept tells the historical evolution of institutions of the leisure class in South Africa in a more dynamic way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The disciplines of American public administration and economics are not dynamic, but are instead locked into their foundational principles and practices. Both fields are path-dependent which has made them change-resistant. This paper examines the nature of change in American culture and the influence of path-dependency on public administration and economics through a theoretical analysis. In the field of public administration, path dependency is used as the framework for analyzing recent public administration reform movements, and it explains how these movements are bound by the traditional public administration doctrine crafted in 1887. In the field of economics, the limitations of both orthodox and heterodox economics are analyzed. This paper will argue that orthodox economics, grounded in the ideas of the past--The Enlightenment, natural law, and Newtonian mechanics--is insufficient for dealing with the current political, social, and economic realities. Furthermore, heterodox economics, although in opposition to mainstream theory, only challenges the neoclassical model at the edges. Because of the constrained path of American public administration and adherence to the neoclassical model of economics, both disciplines are not prepared to respond to the complexities of the 21st Century. A new framework is needed in both disciplines that can accommodate the complexities, uncertainty, and nonlinearity of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]