Masahiko Aoki -- What are Institutions? How Should We Approach Them

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Abstract

August 2000

This is chapter 1 of a book manuscript entitled Towards a Comparative Institutional Analysis forthcoming from MIT Press in spring 2001. This book provides a game-theoretic, conceptual and analytical framework for understanding sources of the diversity of institutional arrangements across economies, the mechanism of institutional change, as well as analyzing various contemporary institutional issues such as corporate governance, relational financing, Silicon Valley model, convergence vs. sustained diversity of institutional arrangement. This introductory chapter presents a basic game-theoretic conceptualization of institutions leading to such framework. For detailed contents of the book, visit: https://www.stanford.edu/~aoki