Review 4: Institutional Economics: Social Order and Public Policy by Wolfgang Kasper and Manfred E. Streit (1998)
Reviewed by:
Emmett, R.B.,
Augustana University College,
Choice, (December 1999)
"Few North American departments of economics offer upper-level undergraduate or masters level courses in institutional economics. Thus this book, designed as a text for just such courses, could provide a useful supplement to existing library collections in economics. Kasper (University of New South Wales, Australia) and Streit (Max Planck Institute, Germany) provide a well-organized overview of the foundations of the field in the first half of the book; in the latter half, they examine the way in which the new institutionalism looks at capitalism, the dynamics of competition, collective action, globalization, evolving economic organizations, and transitional economies. The text’s major drawback is the authors’ failure to clarify their identification of institutionalism with its Austrian variant. But this is a comparatively small drawback in a work rich in its understanding of, and appreciation for, the institutional framework of modern economies. Recommended for comprehensive Austrian or institutional economics collections, and for upper-level undergraduate and graduate collections supporting programs in comparative economic systems and the dynamics of capitalism."
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