Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Institutionalism, Old

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Abstract

What is now called ‘old’ institutional economics was a central part of a pluralistic American economics during the inter-war period. It is a tradition that still exists today but as a marginal heterodoxy to a dominant neoclassical mainstream. By the early 1920s it had established itself as an appealing programme with a major presence at leading universities and research institutes. Institutionalist work over the inter-war period included significant contributions to economic measurement and analysis. A number of factors led to the decline of institutional economics after the Second World War, but institutionalism has continued in a modified form, and still attracts adherents today.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Ayres, C.E. 1944. The theory of economic progress, 2nd ed, 1962. New York: Schocken.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, W.J. 1996. Designs within disorder: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the economists, and the shaping of economic policy, 1933–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blaug, M. 1978. Economic theory in retrospect, 3rd ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonbright, J.C. 1961. Principles of public utility rates. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromley, D.W. 1989. Economic interests and institutions: The conceptual foundations of public policy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1917. Business acceleration and the law of demand: A technical factor in business cycles. Journal of Political Economy 25: 217–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1918. Economics and modern psychology, I and II. Journal of Political Economy 26(1–30): 136–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1919. Economic theory in an era of social readjustment. American Economic Review 9: 280–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1921. Soundings in non-Euclidean economics. American Economic Review 11: 132–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1923. Studies in the economics of overhead costs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1926. Social control of business. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J.M. 1927. Recent developments in economics. In Recent developments in the social sciences, ed. E.C. Hayes. Philadelphia: Lippencott.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commons, J.R. 1924. The legal foundations of capitalism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commons, J.R. 1932. The problem of correlating law, economics and ethics. Wisconsin Law Review 8: 3–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commons, J.R. 1934. Institutional economics: Its place in political economy. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Copeland, M.A. 1951. Institutional economics and model analysis. American Economic Review 41: 56–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edie, L.D. 1927. Some positive contributions of the institutional concept. Quarterly Journal of Economics 41: 405–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fried, B.H. 1998. The progressive assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the first law and economics movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith, J.K. 1958. The affluent society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith, J.K. 1971. The new industrial state, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruchy, A.G. 1974. Government intervention and the social control of business: The neoinstitutionalist position. Journal of Economic Issues 8: 235–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hale, R.L. 1921. The “physical value” fallacy in rate cases. Yale Law Journal 30: 710–731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hale, R.L. 1923. Coercion and distribution in a supposedly non-coercive state. Political Science Quarterly 38: 470–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W.H. 1919. The institutional approach to economic theory. American Economic Review 9: 309–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W.H., and S. May. 1923. The control of wages, 1968. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W.H., and H.R. Wright. 1925. The case of bituminous coal. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W.H. and Associates. 1938. Price and price policies. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, G.M. 1988. Institutions and economics: A manifesto for a modern institutional economics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, G.M. 2004. The evolution of institutional economics: Agency, structure and Darwinism in American institutionalism. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans, T.C. 1947. Measurement without theory. Review of Economic Statistics 29: 161–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kyrk, H. 1923. A theory of consumption. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyrk, H. 1933. Economic problems of the family. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, S. 1996. Economics and psychology: Lessons for our own day from the early twentieth century. Journal of Economic Literature 35: 1293–1323.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMahon, T. 1925. Social and economic standards of living. Boston: D.C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Means, G.C. 1935. Industrial prices and their relative inflexibility. Senate Document 13. In: 74th congress, 1st session. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1910a. The rationality of economic activity, I. Journal of Political Economy 18: 97–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1910b. The rationality of economic activity, II. Journal of Political Economy 18: 197–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1913. Business cycles. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1924. The prospects of economics. In The trend of economics, ed. R.G. Tugwell. Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1925. Quantitative analysis in economic theory. American Economic Review 15: 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1927. Business cycles: The problem and its setting. New York: NBER.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, M.S. and Rutherford, M. 1998. From interwar pluralism to postwar neoclassicism. Annual Supplement to vol. 30 of History of Political Economy, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlman, S. 1928. A theory of the labor movement. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 1994. J.A. Hobson and American institutionalism: Underconsumption and technological change. In J.A. Hobson after fifty years, ed. J. Pheby. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 1999. Institutionalism as ‘scientific’ economics. In From classical economics to the theory of the firm: Essays in honour of D.P. O’Brien, ed. R. Backhouse and J. Creedy. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2000a. Institutionalism between the wars. Journal of Economic Issues 34: 291–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2000b. Understanding institutional economics: 1918–1929. Journal of the History of Economic Thought 22: 277–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2001. Institutional economics: Then and now. Journal of Economic Perspectives 15: 173–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2002. Morris A. Copeland: A case study in the history of institutional economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought 24: 261–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2003. Walton Hamilton, Amherst, and the Brookings graduate school: Institutional economics and education. History of Political Economy 35: 611–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2004. Institutional economics at Columbia University. History of Political Economy 36: 31–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2005a. Who’s afraid of Arthur Burns? The NBER and the foundations. Journal of the History of Economic Thought 27:109–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2005b. Walton H. Hamilton and the public control of business. In The role of government in the history of political economy, ed. S. Medema and P. Boettke. Supplement to volume 37, History of Political Economy. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2006. Wisconsin institutionalism: John R. Commons and his students. Labor History 47: 161–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. 2007. Chicago economics and institutionalism. In Elgar companion to Chicago economics, ed. R. Emmett. Aldershot: Edward Elgar (forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuels, W.J. 1971. The interrelations between legal and economic processes. Journal of Law and Economics 14: 435–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, A.A. 1978. Property, power, and public choice. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slichter, S.H. 1924. The organization and control of economic activity. In The trend of economics, ed. R.G.Tugwell. Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slichter, S.H. 1931. Modern economic society. New York: H. Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, W.W. 1919. Economic theory: Discussion. American Economic Review 9: 319–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tugwell, R.G. 1921. The economic basis for business regulation. American Economic Review 11: 643–658.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tugwell, R.G. 1922. The economic basis of public interest. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tugwell, R.G. 1924. The trend of economics. Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veblen, T. 1898. Why is economics not an evolutionary science? In The place of science in modern civilisation. New York: Russell & Russell, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veblen, T. 1899. The theory of the leisure class, 1924. London: George Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veblen, T. 1904. The theory of business enterprise. Clifton: Augustus M. Kelley, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yonay, Y.P. 1998. The struggle over the soul of economics: Institutionalist and neoclassical economists in America between the wars. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5

    Malcolm Rutherford

Authors
  1. Malcolm Rutherford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

    Copyright information

    © 2008 The Author(s)

    About this entry

    Cite this entry

    Rutherford, M. (2008). Institutionalism, Old. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2747-1

    Download citation

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2747-1

    • Received:

    • Accepted:

    • Published:

    • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

    • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5

    • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation