Abstract
Douglass North (1920–2015) was one of the founders of the disciplines of cliometrics and the New Institutional Economics. He spent over six decades teaching economics and economic history at the University of Washington (1950–1981) and Washington University in St. Louis (1983–2015). In the 1950s and 1960s, North applied neoclassical economic models and quantitative techniques to major problems in US economic history and made significant advances on such topics as interregional trade, ocean shipping productivity, the US balance of payments, and sources of US growth. Switching his attention to European economic history from the late 1960s, North became convinced that economic historians needed to adopt a broader approach to analyzing long-run economic change that explicitly accounted for how economies were embedded in political, economic, and cultural institutions. After the publication of two major books using his new approach, Structure and Change in Economic History and Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, North and Robert Fogel were awarded the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Over the next 22 years, North’s frame of analysis continued to expand. In his 2005 book, Understanding the Process of Economic Change, he argued that economists needed to draw from the sciences of human cognition and social psychology to understand why institutions form and how they change. In his last book, Violence and Social Orders (co-authored with John Wallis and Barry Weingast), North made the case that institutions arise in most societies to control the use of violence and are capable of supporting an open political order only in limited circumstances.
References
Selected References by Douglass C. North (In Order of Publication)
Cox GW, North DC, Weingast BR (2015) The violence trap: a political-economic approach to the problems of development. 13 Feb 2015. [cited on 27 January 2018]. Available from: SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2370622
Davis LE, North DC (1970) Institutional change and American economic growth: a first step towards a theory of institutional innovation. J Econ Hist 30(1):131–149
Davis LE, North DC, with assistance from Smorodin C (1971) Institutional change and American economic growth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Denzau A, North DC (1994) Shared mental models: ideologies and institutions. Kyklos 47(1):3–31
Denzau A, North DC, Roy RK (2005) Shared mental models: a postscript. In: Roy RK, Denzau AT, Willet TD (eds) Neoliberalism: national and regional experiments with global ideas. Routledge, London/New York
Drobak JN, North DC (2008) Understanding judicial decision-making: the importance of constraints on non-rational deliberations. Wash Univ J Law Policy 56:131–152
Milgrom PR, North DC, Weingast BR (1990) The role of institutions in the revival of trade: the law merchant, private judges, and the Champagne fairs. Econ Polit 2(1):1–23
North DC (1955) Location theory and regional economic growth. J Polit Econ 63(3):243–258
North DC (1956) International capital flows and the development of the American West. J Econ Hist 16(4):493–505
North DC (1958) Ocean freight rates and economic development 1730–1913. J Econ Hist 18(4):537–555
North DC (1959) Agriculture and regional economic growth. J Farm Econ 41(5):943–951
North DC (1960) The United States balance of payments 1790–1860. In: Parker WN (ed) Trends in the American economy in the nineteenth century, 24th conference on income and wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research. Princeton University Press, Princeton
North DC (1961) The economic growth of the United States, 1790–1860. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs
North DC (1963) Quantitative research in American economic history. Am Econ Rev 53(1/Part 1):128–130
North DC (1965) The state of economic history. Am Econ Rev 55(1/2):85–91
North DC (1966) Growth and welfare in the American past: a new economic history. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs
North DC (1968) Sources of productivity change in ocean shipping 1600–1850. J Polit Econ 76(5):953–970
North DC (1978) Structure and performance: the task of economic history. J Econ Lit 16(3):963–978
North DC (1981) Structure and change in economic history. Norton, New York
North DC (1990) Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
North DC (1991) Institutions. J Econ Perspect 5(1):97–112
North DC (1994) Economic performance through time. Am Econ Rev 84(3):359–368
North DC (2005) Understanding the process of economic change. Princeton University Press, Princeton
North DC. Douglass C. North -biographical. [cited 28 January 2018]. Available at https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1993/north-bio.html
North DC, Thomas RP (1971) The rise and fall of the manorial system: a theoretical model. J Econ Hist 31:977–803
North DC, Thomas RP (1973) The rise of the Western world: a new economic history. University Press, Cambridge
North DC, Wallis JJ (1982) American government expenditures: a historical perspective. Am Econ Rev Pap Proc 72(2):336–340
North DC, Wallis JJ (1994) Integrating institutional change and technical change in economic history: a transaction cost approach. J Inst Theor Econ 150(4):609–624
North DC, Weingast B (1989) Constitutions and commitment: the evolution of institutions governing public choice in seventeenth-century England. J Econ Hist 49(4):803–832
North DC, Alston L, Eggertsson T (eds) (1996) Empirical studies in institutional change. Cambridge University Press, New York
North DC, Summerhill W, Weingast BR (2000) Order, disorder, and economic change: Latin America vs. North America. In: Root H, de Mesquita BB (eds) Governing for prosperity. Yale University Press, New Haven
North DC, Wallis JJ, Weingast BR (2009) Violence and social orders: a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. Cambridge University Press, New York
North DC, Wallis JJ, Webb SB, Weingast BR (eds) (2012) In the shadow of violence. Cambridge University Press, New York
Wallis JJ, North DC (1986) Measuring the transaction sector in the American economy. In: Engerman S, Gallman R (eds) Long term factors in American economic growth. Studies in income and growth, vol 51. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Wallis JJ, North DC (1988) Should transaction costs be subtracted from gross national product? J Econ Hist 48(3):651–654
Other Selected References
Aoki M (2010) Understanding Doug North in game-theoretic language. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 21(2):139–146
Baldwin RE (1956) Patterns of development in newly settled regions. Manchester Sch Econ Soc Stud 24(May):161–179
Bates RH (2010) A review of Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast’s violence and social orders: a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. J Econ Lit 48(3):752–756
Bogue AG (1972) Review: institutional change and American economic growth by Lance Davis, Douglass C. North with assistance from Calla Smorodin. J Econ Hist 32(4):961–962
Carruthers BG (1990) Politics, popery, and property: a comment on North and Weingast. J Econ Hist 50(3):693–698
Clark GA (2007) Farewell to alms: a brief economic history of the world. Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford
Commons JR (1934) Institutional economics. Macmillan, New York
David PA (1985) Clio and the economics of QWERTY. Am Econ Rev 75(2):332–337
Diebolt C, Haupert M (2017) A cliometric counterfactual: what if there had been neither Fogel nor North? Cliometrica; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-017-0167-8
Engerman SL, Sokoloff KL (2000) Institutions, factor endowments, and paths of development in the new world. J Econ Perspect 14(3):217–232
Fenoaltea S (1975) The rise and fall of a theoretical model: the manorial system. J Econ Hist 35(2):386–409
Field AJ (1981) The problem with neoclassical institutional economics: a critique with special reference to the North/Thomas model of pre-1500 Europe. Explor Econ Hist 18(2):174–198
Fine B, Milonakis D (2003) From principle of pricing to pricing of principle: rationality and irrationality in the economic history of Douglass North. Comp Stud Soc Hist 45(3):120–144
Galbraith JK (1951) Conditions for economic change in underdeveloped countries. J Farm Econ 33(4/Part 2):689–696
Galenson DW (1983) Review: structure and change in economic history by Douglass C. North. J Polit Econ 91(1):188–190
Galenson DW (1993) Review: institutions, institutional change and economic performance by Douglass C. North. Econ Dev Cult Chang 41(2):419–422
Goldin C (1995) Cliometrics and the nobel. J Econ Perspect 9(2):191–208
Goldstone J (1982) Review: structure and change in economic history by Douglass C. North. Contemp Sociol 11(6):687–688
Greif A (2006) Institutions and the path to the modern economy: lessons from medieval trade. Cambridge University Press, New York
Greif A, Kingston C (2011) Institutions: rules or equilibria? In: Caballero G, Schofield N (eds) Political economy of institutions, democracy and voting. Springer, Berlin
Harley CK (1988) Ocean freight rates and productivity, 1740–1913: the primacy of mechanical invention. J Econ Hist 48(4):851–876
Hughes JRT (1982) Douglass North as a teacher. In: Ransom R, Sutch R, Walton G (eds) Explorations in the new economic history: essays in honor of Douglass C. North. Academic, San Diego
Libecap GD, Lyons JS, Williamson SH, interviewers (2008) Douglass C. North, further reflections. In: Lyons JS, Cain LP, Williamson SH (eds) Reflections on the cliometrics revolution: conversations with economic historians. Routledge, New York
Margo R (2009) Review: Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast’s violence and social orders: a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. EH.NET. [cited on 27 January 2018]. Available at http://eh.net/book_reviews/violence-and-social-orders-a-conceptual-framework-for-interpreting-recorded-human-history
McCloskey DN (2010) Bourgeois dignity: why economics can’t explain the modern. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Menard C, Shirley MM (2014) The contribution of Douglass North to new institutional economics. In: Galiani S, Sened I (eds) Institutions, property rights, and economic growth: the legacy of Douglass North. Cambridge University Press, New York
Mokyr J (2017) Culture of growth: the origins of the modern economy. Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford
Neale W (1993) Review: institutions, institutional change and economic performance by Douglass C. North. Econ Dev Cult Chang 41(2):422–425
Pincus SCA (2009) 1688: the first modern revolution. Yale University Press, New Haven
Pincus SCA, Robinson JA (2014) What really happened during the Glorious Revolution? In: Galiani S, Sened I (eds) Institutions, property rights, and economic growth: the legacy of Douglass North. Cambridge University Press, New York
Pryor FL (1982) Review: structure and change in economic history by Douglass C. North. J Econ Hist 42(4):986–989
Rostow WW (1956) The takeoff into self-sustained growth. Econ J 66(261):25–48
Rostow WW (1982) Review: structure and change in economic history by Douglass C. North. Bus Hist Rev 56(2):299–301
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1993) Press Release, Oct. 12, 1993. [cited on 18 July 2018] Available at https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1993/press.html
Schultz T (1953) The economic organization of agriculture. McGraw-Hill, New York
Simon M (1960) The United States balance of payments, 1861–1900. In: Parker WN (ed) Trends in the American economy in the nineteenth century, 24th conference on income and wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Sutch R (1982) Douglass North and the new economic history. In: Ransom R, Sutch R, Walton G (eds) Explorations in the new economic history: essays in honor of Douglass C. North. Academic, San Diego
Tullock G (1983) Review: Douglass C. North, structure and change in economic history. Public Choice 40(2):233–234
van der Wee H (1975) Review: the rise of the Western world: a new economic history by Douglass C. North and Robert Paul Thomas. Bus Hist Rev 49(2):237–239
Veblen T (1899) The theory of the leisure class. Macmillan, New York
Veblen T (1904) The theory of business enterprise. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York
Wallis JJ (2014) Persistence and change: the evolution of Douglass C. North. In: Galiani S, Sened I (eds) Institutions, property rights, and economic growth: the legacy of Douglass North. Cambridge University Press, New York
Wells J, Wills D (2000) Revolution, restoration, and debt repudiation: the Jacobite threat to England’s institutions and economic growth. J Econ Hist 60(2):418–441
Williamson OE (2000) The new institutional economics: taking stock, looking ahead. J Econ Lit 38(3):595–613
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La Croix, S. (2018). Douglass North and Cliometrics. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_44-1
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