A Study On The Core Theories Of Institutionalist Economics And Its Development

In the past,institutionalist economics and the study of institutionalist economic thought have been marginalized by several unfair evaluations,but with the rise of evolutionary economics,the pluralist movement in economics,the return of economic ethical thinking,the demand for new development ideas and the rise of cutting-edge analytical methods such as complexity economics and social network analysis in recent years,institutionalist economic thought has proven to be entirely prescient,thus attracting widespread attention in the academy.On the other hand,with the continuous persistence of a group of contemporary institutionalist economists,institutionalist economics has not completely died out as some critics have claimed,but has instead taken on a new academic vigor in contemporary times.Based on this understanding,this paper composes and summarizes the new development of the ideas,methods and theories of institutionalist economics in contemporary times through the evolution of the core theories of institutionalist economics.In the usage of this dissertation,the "core theories" has two levels of meaning.Based on the social fabric matrix approach created by the institutionalist Hayden and the theoretical elements of institutionalist economics further refined by Adkisson according to the social fabric matrix approach,this dissertation argues that the core theories of institutionalist economics refers to its theory of human nature and theory of value in a narrow sense,and includes two theoretical aspects closely related to the human nature theory and value theory in a broader sense,i.e.,the theory of technology and the theory of institution.Based on this grasp of the theoretical structure and theoretical relationships of institutionalist economics,the text is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is an introduction,which explains the background and significance of the topic of this dissertation and provides an overview of the existing research on the history of institutionalist economics and its research trends at home and abroad,and proposes the main research ideas,research methods and research framework of this paper.Chapter 2summarizes the evolution and development of institutionalist human nature theory.First,the evolution of institutionalist human nature thought from Veblen to contemporary institutionalism is reviewed,from which two interrelated but distinct tendencies of institutionalist human nature theory are obtained,namely,Veblen’s "instinct-habit psychology" and Ayres’ cultural theory of human.The second chapter also reviews the expansions of contemporary institutionalists in these two directions,including Bush’s behavioral model theory and Dugger’s power theory which based on Ayers’ theory of human nature,as well as Hodgson’s revival of Veblen’s idea of human nature through evolutionary psychology and Almeida’s revival through psychoanalysis.The third chapter is a study of the evolution and development of the institutionalist theory of value and the idea of establishing an evaluation system.Firstly,the evolution of institutionalist instrumental value(evaluation)theory from Dewey’s instrumentalist value philosophy to Ayers’ instrumental value theory to Tool’s social value theory is sorted out;secondly,the further development of institutionalist value theory after Toll is elaborated,including a summary of the contemporary institutionalists’ social value theory around Tool from the perspective of events in the history of economic thought This chapter summarizes the "relativist debate" of contemporary institutionalists around Tool’s social value theory,as well as the promotion of institutionalist value theory by Mirowski’s social value theory from the perspective of "Agrology".The fourth chapter examines the technical and institutional theories of institutionalism based on theories of human nature and value.From the perspective of institutionalist economics,technology is essentially a developmental issue,and in turn,development requires corresponding institutional adjustments,so this chapter also elaborates institutionalist developmental theory.In this chapter,this paper composes and summarizes the development of relevant institutionalist economic theoretical contents by taking De Greori’s technology theory,Street’s development theory and Bush’s institutional change theory as the main lines.It concludes with a summary and evaluation.