The New Institutionalist Schools

The "New Institutionalist Schools" to refer to the collection of schools of thought that seek to explain political, historical, economic and social institutions such as government, law, markets, firms, social conventions, the family, etc.  in terms of Neoclassical economic theory.  New Institutionalist schools can be thought of as the outcome of the  Chicago School's   "economic imperialism" -- i.e. using Neoclassical economics to explain areas of human society normally considered outside them.  In this sense, New Institutionalism can been seen as the precise opposite of the old American Institutionalist school, which sought to apply the reasoning of the other social sciences into economics.

Although the term "New Institutionalism" is usually reserved for the work of Ronald Coase, Armen Alchian, Harold Desmsetz and Oliver Williamson,and others on the transactions costs and the property rights paradigm, it can nonetheless be meaningfully stretched to embrace "economic" theories of the non-market social relationships (e.g. Becker, Mincer), political processes (e.g. the "Public Choice" school of Buchanan and Tullock), jurisprudence and legal processes (i.e. the "Law- and-Economics movement of Posner and Landes) and social and economic history (the "New Economic History" school of Fogel and North).

Predecessors

• American Institutionalist School

• English Historical School

• George J. Stigler and the Chicago School

New Institutionalism

• Ronald H. Coase, 1910-

• Armen A. Alchian, 1914-

• Harold Demsetz, 1930-

• Herbert A. Simon, 1916-

• Michael C. Jensen, 1939-

• Eugene F. Fama, 1939-

• Oliver E. Williamson, 1932-

• Richard M. Cyert, 1921-

• Richard R. Nelson, 1930-

• Sidney G. Winter, 1935-

New Social Economics

• Theodore W. Schultz, 1902-

• Jacob Mincer, 1922- 

• Gary S. Becker, 1930-

New Economic History

• Robert W. Fogel, 1926-

• Douglass C.North, 1920-

• Robert M. Townsend, 1948-

• Donald/Deirdre N. McCloskey, 1942-

Public Choice School

• James M. Buchanan, 1919-

• Gordon Tullock, 1922-

• Anthony Downs, 1930- image
• An Economic Theory of Democracy, 1957
• Inside Bureaucracy, 1967.
• Urban Problems and Prospects, 1970.
• Racism in America, 1970
• Federal Housing Subsidies, 1973.
• Urban economist.  His main contribution to the "public choice" movement was his famous 1957 treatise on the relationship between bureaucracy, governance and economic interest. 

• William A. Niskanen, 1933-

Law and Economics Movement

• Richard Posner, 1939-

• William M. Landes, 1939-
  • "An Economic Analysis of the Courts", J Law Econ
  • "Legal Precedent: a theoretical and empirical analysis", with Posner, 1976, J Law Econ
  • "An Economic Study of US Aircraft Hijacking, 1961-1976", 1978, J Law Econ
  • "Salvors, Finders, Good Samaritans and Other Rescuers", with R. Posner, 1978, J Legal Studies
  • "Joint and Multiple Tortfeasors", with R. Posner, 1980, J Legal Studies

Resources on New Institutionalism

• HET Pages: the Maximization Debate
• Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, edited by Boudewijn Bouckaert and Gerrit De Geest, 1996, Edward Elgar. (including many excellent literature reviews, e.g. "The Coase Theorem" by Medema and Zerbe, "Transactions Costs" by D.G. Allen and "Public Choice" by L. Van den Hauwe)
• "Against Posner against Coase against theory" by U Mäki, 1998, Cambridge JE 
• David Friedman's Page on Law and Economics
• New Institutionalism Website  
• Review of "From Posner to Post Modernism" by Mercero and Medema
• "Review of Vromen, Economic Evolution: An Enquiry into the Foundations of New Institutional Economics", by Malcolm Rutherford, 2000, HOPE
• "Nobels and Us" - grumbles about New Institutionalism from Michael Albert
• Resources on Law and Economics at Find Law.