This article examines the relationship between the work of Yoram Barzel and Institutional Economics. Barzel has developed a property rights/transaction cost approach to economics and has written on topics ranging from car racing to slavery to Jewish lending to voting rules in condominium associations. Among his many ideas are those about racing to claim assets, multitasking, rationing by waiting, divided ownership of complex assets, measurement costs, and the economic orgins of democracy. In the process Barzel’s work unearthed the economic rationale for many institutions and offered a framework for analyzing them. Barzel holds an important place among all economists for expanding the scope of economic science in a way that focuses attention on the importance of property rights in understanding institutions and the economic logic of their variety. In this way he has been a crucial part of economic study of institutions.
Capitalism, the Commons, and Divine Right - Schumacher Center for a New Economics
Barnes defines the commons as "the sum of all we inherit together and must pass on, undiminished and more or less equally, to our heirs." The commons includes watersheds, air, DNA, playgrounds, Main Street, radio waves, political systems, and numerous other natural resources and social innovations. Barnes suggests that the commons should be held in trust for the benefit of current and future generations as a way of countering the power of the market and its search for short-term private profits.
AI Economics for Dummies
“Xavier owns an apartment that he rents out at a loss of $1 billion/month. Seeing this success, he decides to make financial commitments to construct $850 bi...
Risk, Uncertainty and Profit
A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fasc…
Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Ec…
Thirty years ago, the economic system of the Soviet emp…
Institution
An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and norms are all examples of institutions. Institutions vary in their level of formality and informality. Institutions embody a great deal of knowledge of how to do things in society and have been described as the social science equivalent of theories in the natural sciences.
Montesquieu, "The Spirit of Laws," Book XX
1. Of Commerce. The following subjects deserve to be treated in a more extensive manner than the nature of this work will permit. Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
The Third Web
(This text is very long. Maybe too long. You can find a PDF and an EPUB of it below.The current version of this text will always live at https://web3.tante.ccSatya has created an audio version of this essay. Eine deutsche Version findet sich hier. Una versione italiana di questo testo è qui – grazie Nebbia! En […]
Territoires en redirection - imaginarium-s
Une enquête sur le renoncement comme compétence collective. Projet de recherche Imaginarium-s soutenu et financé par l'Institut pour la Recherche de la Caisse des Dépôts, la MAIF et la Ville de Grenoble 2025-2026. Réalisé par Alexandre Monnin, Claire Deligant, Emile Hooge, Romain Barrallon et Oscar Hooge. Une piscine qui ferme sans être reconstruite. Un projet routier abandonné après trente ans…
The politics of decentralization and the libertarian allure of Mastodon – Structural Integrity
I am currently reading the fabulous “Hayek’s Bastards” by Quinn Slobodian. It made me think about decentralisation in Mastodon (yes, the federated social network). And it made me think about the lack of a coherent progressive vision for the digital age. I will explain what that book has to do with both. But let’s go back to the political meaning of “decentralisation” in digital discourse first.
The continued search for Spime Script
The rants and raves of Simon Wardley on Evolution, Technology, Economics and Business
notes on the industrialisation of decision making
worrying away at an old subject
Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
archived 12 Mar 2026 21:01:45 UTC
A Grammar of Institutions
The institutional grammar introduced here is based on a view that institutions are enduring regularities of human action in situations structured by rules, norms, and shared strategies, as well as by the physical world. The rules, norms, and shared strategies are constituted and reconstituted by human interaction in frequently occurring or repetitive situations. The syntax of the grammar identifies components of institutions and sorts them into three types of institutional statements: rules, norms, and shared strategies. We introduce the grammar, outline methods for operationalizing the syntax, apply the syntax to an analysis of cooperation in collective dilemma situations, and discuss the pragmatics of the grammar for analyses of behavior within complex institutional settings.
