TY - JOUR
T1 - Introduction to the Douglass C. North Memorial Issue
AU - Hodgson, Geoffrey
N1 - This is the accepted version of the following article: Geoffrey M. Hodgson, ‘Introduction to the Douglass C. North memorial issue’, Journal of Institutional Economics, (early view) 1 December 2016, which has been published in final form at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137416000400
©Cambridge UniversityPress 2016
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - This introduction considers the highly influential contribution of Douglass C. North to economic history and institutional economics, as it developed from the 1960s until his death in 2015. It sketches the evolution of his arguments concerning the roles of institutions, organizations and human agency. North’s conception of the economic actor became progressively more sophisticated, by acknowledging the role of ideology and adopting insights from cognitive science. Eventually he abandoned the proposition that institutions are generally efficient, to propose instead that sub-optimal institutional forms could persist. A few noted criticisms of North’s work are also considered here, ranging from those which are arguably off the mark, to others that retain some force. The contributions to this memorial issue are outlined at the end of this introduction.
AB - This introduction considers the highly influential contribution of Douglass C. North to economic history and institutional economics, as it developed from the 1960s until his death in 2015. It sketches the evolution of his arguments concerning the roles of institutions, organizations and human agency. North’s conception of the economic actor became progressively more sophisticated, by acknowledging the role of ideology and adopting insights from cognitive science. Eventually he abandoned the proposition that institutions are generally efficient, to propose instead that sub-optimal institutional forms could persist. A few noted criticisms of North’s work are also considered here, ranging from those which are arguably off the mark, to others that retain some force. The contributions to this memorial issue are outlined at the end of this introduction.
U2 - 10.1017/S1744137416000400
DO - 10.1017/S1744137416000400
M3 - Article
SN - 1744-1374
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Journal of Institutional Economics
JF - Journal of Institutional Economics
ER -