Institutional Economics: Theory

Marc R. Tool This book of especially solicited contributions is intended to appraise, re- fine, and extend the institutionalists evolutionary theory of political eco- nomy in six different areas of inquiry. These areas are the institutionalist challenge to move beyond dissent, methodology of institutional econo- mics, theory of instrumental value, institutionaUst theory of labor markets, institutionalist theory of economic development, and institutionalist policymaking. This collection appears at an especially opportune time. There is wide- spread and accumulating analytical dissatisfaction with received economic doctrine (West and East) and its often abortive application to policy. The traditional neoclassical and Marxist views of how to order and operate a political economy are now heavily discounted, especially by those who must bear the brunt of flawed or ineffectual policies derived from these views. Appeals are increasingly made for more populist and pragmatic, less doctrinaire and dogmatic, approaches to problem solving. Instituti- aUsts are responding to this concern by contributing poUcy-relevant analysis.