Review

"This striking collection of essays by leading scholars ranges across continents and centuries in its rich and varied analysis of the connections between institutions and economic performance. It boldly expands the horizon of the new institutional economics to include not only the nature and durability of economic organization but its interaction with beliefs, culture, and human capacity for learning."

--JAMES ALT, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

"This is one of those rare collections that is accurately titled. Virtually every paper here explores, deeply and originally, fundamental issues in institutional economics. It is an intellectual feast for political scientists, sociologists, and historians as well as for economists and economic historians."

--JOHN FEREJOHN, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California

"For anyone interested in the New Institutional Economics and how it can inspire research in the social sciences, this collection represents the best point of departure imaginable. Above all, these studies reflect and symbolize Douglass North's most fundamental contribution, namely to show what happens when History and Economics interact in a fruitful way. The essays produce endless new research ideas in our continuing search for understanding economic change and the way society operates."

--JOEL MOKYR, Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences, Departments of Economics and History, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois -- Review