"The Economics of Institutions" and the Institutional Analysis of Socio-economic Systems : For the Rebuilding of Political Economy

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The purpose of this study is to examine various developments in the economics of institutions since the 1970s. Above all, a variety of institutionalism has been restored since the l980s. So far, however, these institutionalism are literally confined to the economical analysis of institutions. In oder to develop the economics of institutions in the larger framework of socio-economic systems, this study attempts to generalize new trends of institutionalism as the institutional analysis of socio-economic systems.Here, we paid special attention to three study groups, that is, the modem institutional economics, the radical political economy, and the regulation approach, which have engaged in theorizing the institutionalism on their own. From focusing on these study groups, we found the following research results.First of all, these three study groups inherit different intellectual tradition of institutionalism, that is, the modem institutional economics, the radical political economy, and t … More he regulation approach inherit the institutionalism of Veblen, of Marx, and of Keynes and post-Keynesian respectively. Therefore, from our focusing on these study groups we can derive the new argument such that how the institutionalism of Veblen, of Marx, and of Keynes and post-Keynesian can be interrelated with one another in the analytical field of the economics of institutions.Next, these study groups have developed their own theoretical foundations on the analysis of institutions and the evolution of institutions. To put it more concretely, the modem institutional economics has its own theoretical characteristics on theorizing behavior of economic agents and the formation and evolution of institutions, the radical political economy has its own theoretical characteristics on the microfoundation of institutional analysis, and the regulation approach has its own theoretical characteristics on the macrofoundation of institutional analysis. Therefore, synthesizing three institutionalism of these study groups enables us to obtain a new theoretical framework and a new approach to the economics of institutions.We are not concerned in this study with a problem such that how our own theoretical framework of the institutional analysis of socio-economic systems can be interrelated with the evolutionary economics. In this sense, this study is an interim report on our attempts to generalize new trends of institutionalism as the institutional analysis of socio-economic systems. Less