JOIE Editor Geoff M. Hodgson introduces a significant new issue
The September 2015 issue of the Journal of Institutional Economics has articles and comments grouped around three themes, covering the general nature of institutions, and the relationship between institutions, on the one hand, and entrepreneurship, judgment and knowledge, on the other.
The first theme concerns the nature of institutions. The important lead article by Frank Hindriks and Francesco Guala proposes a new “rules in equilibria” understanding of institutions that synthesises the rules-based and equilibrium-based views that have previously been prominent in the literature. There are responses to this synthesis by Nobel Laureate Vernon L. Smith, the late Masahiko Aoki, Robert Sugden, Kenneth Binmore, Geoffrey M. Hodgson and the philosopher John R. Searle. This lively exchange of views raises fundamental questions about the nature of institutions (Smith, Aoki, Sugden, Binmore and Searle), the definition of the institution concept (Hodgson), and our understanding of human motivation in an institutional context (Searle).
A second theme on “minds and institutions” is organized and introduced by Teppo Felin. Two articles follow, by Giovanni Dosi and Luigi Marengo on “The dynamics of organizational structures and performances under diverging distributions of knowledge and different power structures” and by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastie on “Garbage in, garbage out? Some micro sources of macro errors”.
A third theme on “judgment-based approach to entrepreneurship” is organized and introduced by Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein. It contains three articles, by Andrew C. Godley and Mark C. Casson, on “‘Doctor, doctor…’ entrepreneurial diagnosis and market making”, by Niklas L. Hallberg on “Uncertainty, judgment, and the theory of the firm” and by Jeffery S. McMullen, “Entrepreneurial judgment as empathic accuracy: A sequential decision making approach to entrepreneurial action”.
We invite you to explore the full issue of Journal of Institutional Economics here