Institutional Economics
Veblen, Commons, and later North and Coase. Institutions — rules, norms, organizations — shape economic behavior more than abstract models suggest.
Sub-topics
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) introduced conspicuous consumption and challenged neoclassical rationality. Co-founded institutional economics and coined the term 'neoclassical economics.'
Institutional Economics (1934) placed transactions — not individuals or commodities — at the center of economic analysis. Influenced labor law, social security, and the New Deal.
The Affluent Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967) argued that large corporations, not free markets, dominate modern capitalism. A public intellectual who challenged orthodox economics.
Coase, North, and Williamson integrated institutions into neoclassical analysis. Transaction costs, property rights, and institutional design explain why firms exist and economies diverge.