Insituições

INSTITUTIONS AND CREDIBLE COMMITMENT
by
Douglass C. North
Washington University, St. Louis*
In this essay I intend to assess the road we have
travelled in the ten years since the first conference on
Institutional Economics with the objectives of suggesting
where we should go from here. The suggestions will be
personal reflecting both my special interests as an economic
historian and my undoubtedly subjective perceptions of the
road we have travelled and of an agenda of research.
The title of my essay gives away the key questions that
I believe we must answer. How have economies in the past
developed institutions that have provided the credible
commitment that has enabled more complex contracting to be
realized; and what lessons can we derive from that
experience that will be of value today in the on going
process of building or rebuilding economies?
The issue is straightforward: how to bind the players
to agreements across space and time.
Mais