The course aims to provide the foundations of Institutional Economics by means of a comprehensive theoretical overview of the principal issues of Institutional and Evolutionary Economics, as economic evolution and innovation.

Organization of the course

The foundational lectures by Geoffrey Hodgson for the course will consist of 3 hour sessions for 10 days. Each of these 3 hour sessions will consist of 2 hour lecture (with a short break in the middle), and 1 hour session for question, answers, and discussion. The other 15 hours will be taught in small groups (5-6 people per group) by one or more of the Assistant Professors (Internet). Those who wish to acquire the full certificate will be required to write 2 essays of 2,000 words on pre-assigned topic, accompanied by a reading list. These essays will be assessed by the Assistant Professors and given feedback. Geoffrey Hodgson will be available for contact through e-mail for questions for Content of the Course

Content of the Course

1. The Old and the New Institutional Economics
. What is the Essence of Institutional Economics?

2. The Hilden Persuaders: reconstitutive downward causation
. The Hilden Persuaders

3. Emergent Properties and the Critiques of Reductionism and Methodological Individualism
. Notes on Reductionism and Emergent Properties

4. The Emergence of Institutions: rationality, habit and learning
. The Complex Evolution of a simple traffic convention

5. The Nature of Socio-Economic Evolution
. Is Social Evolution Lamarckian or Darwinian?

6. The Problem of Historical Specificity in Economics
. How Economics Forgot History

7. Why did American Institutionalism Decline?
. Decomposition and Growth

8. The Legal Nature of the Firm and the Myth of the Firm-Market Hybrid
. The Legal Nature of the Firm and the Myth of the Firm-Market Hybrid

9. Learning and Transactions in the Theory of the Firm
. Firm-Specific Learning and the Nature of the Firm

10. The Future of Capitalism
. Socio-Economic Consequences of the Advance of Complexity and Knowledge

Bibliography:

Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (1988) Economics and Institutions: A Manifesto for a Modern Institutional Economics (Cambridge and Philadelphia: Polity Press and University of Pennsylvania Press).

Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (ed.) (1993) The Economics of Institutions (Aldershot: Edward Elgar).
Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (1998) 'The Approach of Institutional Economics', Journal of Economic Literature, 36(1), March, pp. 166-92.

Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (1999) Evolution and Institutions: On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

North, Douglass C. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Searle, John R. (1995) The Construction of Social Reality (London: Allen Lane).