Abstract
Despite the fact that the significance of institutional economics is commonly recognized, the uncertainty of basic concepts of institutional economics – institutions – and its investigation sphere is widely mentioned today. The paper aims to trace the process of evolution in the understanding of the notion of institution, from its spontaneous mentions and pragmatic use of the so-called pre-institutional era to the desire to understand and to define the essence of the institution in the period of early institutionalism. Based on the analyses of appropriate literature, the paper tries to study how the term “institution” was understood at the three initial historical period of its usage. For this purpose, the first part of the paper analyses how the term “institution” was used at the start by religious figures in VII and XIII centuries and then by thinkers in XVII-XVIII centuries which are considered as a pre-history of the term “institution” wide usage. The second part of the study is focused on the investigation how the term was understood by immediate predecessors of institutional economics – German Historical School, and the third part of the paper investigates scholars-institutionalists’ efforts in the intellectual context on the period 1890-1930.
Highlights
During last some decade institutional economics is becoming more and more widespread and attractive approach in economic science. This is evidenced by the rapidly rising number of researches dedicated to the development of institutional economics and its ideas, or using institutional approach of investigation. This is evidenced by the fact that considerable numbers of the Nobel Prize winners in economics are representatives of institutional economic theory or to any extent connected to institutionalism and institutions
In this paper I will concentrate my attention on the process determining how the term “institution” was understood at the early stage of its existence and how its investigation sphere was defined by founders of institutional economics and their predecessors
The study proceeds from the assumption that uncertainty in definition of the term “institution” could be to a certain extent predetermined by ambiguousness in its usage in a period antecedent to the rise of institutional economics
Summary
During last some decade institutional economics is becoming more and more widespread and attractive approach in economic science. This is evidenced by the rapidly rising number of researches dedicated to the development (and critics as well) of institutional economics and its ideas, or using institutional approach of investigation This is evidenced by the fact that considerable numbers of the Nobel Prize winners in economics are representatives of institutional economic theory or to any extent connected to institutionalism and institutions. Despite common recognizing of the theoretical and practical significance of institutional economics, both the field of investigation of institutional economics and its basic category – institution remain uncertain. Up to this day, the concept of institutions seems quite blurred and reflects a wide diversity of researchers’ viewpoints toward its definition. In this paper I will concentrate my attention on the process determining how the term “institution” was understood at the early stage of its existence and how its investigation sphere was defined by founders of institutional economics and their predecessors
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