Organizations, Institutions, Systems: Types and Levels of Rules

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The notion of rules is common to the economics of organization and the economics of institutions. The author analyses the concept of going concern by Commons, the spontaneous and organized order in Hayek's works, and North's distinction of formal and informal institutions. Comparing these three theories he proposes a synthetic and critical approach in trying to articulate individual and collective actions in a systemic framework where organizations are defined as collective and hierarchised ensembles of specific rules, and institutions as general and social rules with higher durability, directly or indirectly sanctioned by the state.