The tortoise and the hare: how North's institutional ideas resolved a 19th century Australian fable

O'Connell, Darren Christopher; Austen, Siobhan

doi:10.1017/s1744137416000187

Cited by 1 publication

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“…In the sixth essay, entitled ‘The tortoise and the hare: How North's institutional ideas resolved a nineteenth century Australian fable’, Darren O'Connell and Siobhan Austen (2016) use North's institutional framework to explain why the colonies of Western Australia and South Australia, established in 1829 and 1836, respectively, had considerable disparities in economic growth up the end of 1900. They argue that the two colonies had different institutions and policies, which evolved along different trajectories, leading eventually to a convergence of economic performance.…”

Section: The Contents Of This Memorial Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to the Douglass C. North memorial issue

Hodgson

2016

Journal of Institutional Economics

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This introduction considers the highly influential contribution of Douglass C. North to economic history and institutional economics, as it developed from the 1960s until his death in 2015. It sketches the evolution of his arguments concerning the roles of institutions, organizations and human agency. North's conception of the economic actor became progressively more sophisticated, by acknowledging the role of ideology and adopting insights from cognitive science. Eventually, he abandoned the proposition that institutions are generally efficient, to propose instead that sub-optimal institutional forms could persist. A few noted criticisms of North's work are also considered here, ranging from those which are arguably off the mark, to others that retain some force. The contributions to this memorial issue are outlined at the end of this introduction.

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Section: The Contents Of This Memorial Issuementioning

confidence: 99%