Defining institutions - A review and a synthesis

Claudius Graebner () and Amineh Ghorbani
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Claudius Graebner: Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, https://claudius-graebner.com/
Amineh Ghorbani: Delft University of Technology
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch

No 89, ICAE Working Papers from Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy

Abstract: Despite being a key term in institutional economics, the term 'institution' seems to be used in various different ways. To what extent is this problematic, given that a shared understanding of key terms among scholars is a necessary condition for scientific progress? We review prominent definitions of the term 'institution' and identify a set of shared elements of these definitions, which can be summarized as institutions being "codifiable systems of social structures (in particular norms and rules) that lead to inclinations for people to act in specific ways". This suggests that the shared understanding of ‘institutions’ is sufficiently concrete.

Keywords: Definitions; institutions; epistemology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-hme and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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