Throughout his long career as a professional scholar, Paul Dale Bush has been a cogent theorist, a model practitioner and an ardent defender of academic freedom and of democratic practices. Institutionalist Theory and Applications is the second of two volumes celebrating his career and his contribution to neo-institutional economics.This volume presents contributions by a distinguished group of institutionalist scholars: Edythe S. Miller, Philip A. Klein, James A. Cypher, F. Gregory Hayden, John Groenewegen, Peter Soderbaum, Charles M.A. Clark, Catherine Kavanagh and Janice Peterson. The book explores the interdependence of theory and policy and applies institutional theory to several problem areas of governance and performance. This book will be of great interest to postgraduate students and academics in the field of institutional economics, evolutionary economics, political economy, history of economic theory, methodology, social economics, social policy and social value theory.

The volume appraises, refines, and extends the institutionalist's evolutionary theory of political economy in six different areas of inquiry: (a) the provision of a fresh and comparative overview of institutional economics in general; (b) the presentation and refinement of pragmatic methods of inquiry; (c) the exploration of extensions and clarifications of instrumental value theory; (d) the distillation of an emergent institutionalist theory of labor markets; (e) the explication of a culture-based theory of economic development; and (f) the formulation of an analytical design that provides direction for institutional policy making. Institutional Economics: Theory, Method, Policy appears at an especially opportune time, when there is widespread and accumulating analytical dissatisfaction with received economic doctrine. The traditional neoclassical and Marxist views of how to explain, order, and operate a political economy are now in question throughout the world. Appeals are being made for more relevant and pragmatic, less doctrinaire and dogmatic, approaches to economic inquiry and problem solving. This volume provides fresh theoretical underpinnings for such problem solving efforts.

J. Fagg Foster (1907-1985) was one of the most significant creators of institutionalist economic theory in the twentieth century. He wrote and taught in the American intellectual tradition of Thorstein Weblen, John R. Commons, John Dewey and Clarence E. Ayres. This tradition shares purpose and philosophy with the European contributors, Gunnar Myrdal and K. William Kapp. Because little of Foster's scholarly work was formally published, professional knowledge of his extraordinary contribution is quite limited beyond the circle of his students and colleagues. Value Theory and Economic Progress attempts to correct that deficiency by providing an extended characterization of this missing and crucial component of the development of American heterodox economic thought. Its purpose is to demonstrate the timely relevance and significance of this model of inquiry in political economy. In addition, this volume explains that contemporary problem solving means changing what is' into what ought to be' through institutional adjustments; such a demonstration is at the heart of Foster's contribution to institutional thought.

This is a book on economic policy that takes the role of democracy seriously. It challenges the conventional wisdom espoused by leaders of both major political parties in the US, and increasingly by leaders of other nations, that markets and not democratic policy formation should determine the legitimate role of private interests in the conduct of the economy.

The authors of the essays in this book reject the mainstream neoclassical view that the market should rule "A1/4ber alles." Examining the problems existing in a number of crucial areas of economic policy, they demonstrate the inadequacy of orthodox view that markets can generate economic welfare without the guidance of democratically formulated economic policies. Using the principles of the original institutional economics (OIE), they fashion long-term strategies for the formation of economic policies that can accommodate institutional changes necessary to meet the ever-changing circumstances faced by nations in a global economy.

The editors, Tool and Bush, have assembled a group of scholars with special expertise in the problems they address. In each instance they offer original insights into issues that many in the mainstream had thought were settled. The analysis and policy proposals of the essays in this book do not defer to the dominant vested interests in industry, academe, or government. The views expressed are fresh, candid, and break out of the ideological boxes that have for so long encapsulated public debates on economic policies.

The contributors to this volume focus on the political and value issues that, in their shared view, underlie the global environmental crisis facing us today. They argue that only by transforming our dominant values, social institutions and way of living can we avoid ecological disaster.

This is a collection of Marc Tool's essays on instituitional econonics, written over the 1980s.

Marc R. Tool This book of especially solicited contributions is intended to appraise, re- fine, and extend the institutionalists' evolutionary theory of political eco- nomy in six different areas of inquiry. These areas are the institutionalist challenge to move beyond dissent, methodology of institutional econo- mics, theory of instrumental value, institutionaUst theory of labor markets, institutionalist theory of economic development, and institutionalist policymaking. This collection appears at an especially opportune time. There is wide- spread and accumulating analytical dissatisfaction with received economic doctrine (West and East) and its often abortive application to policy. The traditional neoclassical and Marxist views of how to order and operate a political economy are now heavily discounted, especially by those who must bear the brunt of flawed or ineffectual policies derived from these views. Appeals are increasingly made for more populist and pragmatic, less doctrinaire and dogmatic, approaches to problem solving. Instituti- aUsts are responding to this concern by contributing poUcy-relevant analysis.

J. Fagg Foster (1907-1985) was one of the most significant creators of institutionalist economic theory in the twentieth century. He wrote and taught in the American intellectual tradition of Thorstein Weblen, John R. Commons, John Dewey and Clarence E. Ayres. This tradition shares purpose and philosophy with the European contributors, Gunnar Myrdal and K. William Kapp. Because little of Foster's scholarly work was formally published, professional knowledge of his extraordinary contribution is quite limited beyond the circle of his students and colleagues. Value Theory and Economic Progress attempts to correct that deficiency by providing an extended characterization of this missing and crucial component of the development of American heterodox economic thought. Its purpose is to demonstrate the timely relevance and significance of this model of inquiry in political economy. In addition, this volume explains that contemporary problem solving means changing what is' into what ought to be' through institutional adjustments; such a demonstration is at the heart of Foster's contribution to institutional thought.

This is a book on economic policy that takes the role of democracy seriously. It challenges the conventional wisdom espoused by leaders of both major political parties in the US, and increasingly by leaders of other nations, that markets and not democratic policy formation should determine the legitimate role of private interests in the conduct of the economy. The authors of the essays in this book reject the mainstream neoclassical view that the market should rule uber alles. Examining the problems existing in a number of crucial areas of economic policy, they demonstrate the inadequacy of orthodox view that markets can generate economic welfare without the guidance of democratically formulated economic policies. Using the principles of the original institutional economics (OIE), they fashion long-term strategies for the formation of economic policies that can accommodate institutional changes necessary to meet the ever-changing circumstances faced by nations in a global economy. The editors, Tool and Bush, have assembled a group of scholars with special expertise in the problems they address.In each instance they offer original insights into issues that many in the mainstream had thought were settled. The analysis and policy proposals of the essays in this book do not defer to the dominant vested interests in industry, academe, or government. The views expressed are fresh, candid, and break out of the ideological boxes that have for so long encapsulated public debates on economic policies.

This authoritative and comprehensive reference work introduces the reader to the major concepts and leading contributors in the field of institutional and evolutionary economics. The Companion's coverage includes contributions by leading international authors working in the traditions of Thorstein Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter and the new institutionalist economics. Featuring accessible, informative and provocative entries on all the significant areas, this book breaks new ground by bringing together widely dispersed but theoretically congruent ideas for the first time. Several entries assess evolutionary and institutional aspects in the work of otherwise orthodox political economists, such as Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall and Friedrich A. von Hayek. Although some attention has been given to the critique of mainstream neoclassical economics, the principal focus has been on the affirmative presentation of institutional and evolutionary economics as alternatives to both the neoclassical and Marxian schools. An important feature of the work is the inclusion of a large number of entries addressing the foundations of inquiry into political economy. As the best single reference source on institutional and evolutionary economics now available, this two volume set will be welcomed by students and teachers in economics, scholars in related social sciences and government policymakers.

Paul Dale Bush has been an imaginative and important contributor to the neo-institutionalist economic literature in the United States for over three decades. This is the first of two volumes presenting a tribute to this highly influential scholar.The majority of Paul Dale Bush's recent scholarly writings have addressed the clarification and refinement of the pragmatic instrumentalist model of inquiry. This book first reviews Dale Bush's main contributions to academic life and to neo-institutional scholarship. Internationally recognized contributors - Phillip Anthony O'Hara, Erkki Kilpinen, Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Kurt Dopfer, Warren J. Samuels, Edythe S. Miller, Ann L. Jennings and William Waller - then provide a penetrating analysis of the Veblen-based neo-institutionalist theoretical approach to inquiry and its reflection in social value theory. This book will be of great interest to postgraduate students and scholars in the field of institutional economics, political economy, history of economic thought, methodology and social value theory.