IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jinsec/v13y2017i01p25-52_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cognitive rules, institutions, and economic growth: Douglass North and beyond

Author

Listed:
  • GREIF, AVNER
  • MOKYR, JOEL

Abstract

Douglass North's writing on institutional change recognized from the very start that such change depends on cognition and beliefs. Yet, although he focused on individual beliefs, we argue in this paper that such beliefs are social constructs. We suggest that institutions – rules, expectations, and norms – are based on shared cognitive rules. Cognitive rules are social constructs that convey information that distills and summarizes society's beliefs and experience. These rules have to be self-enforcing and self-confirming, but they do not have to be ‘correct’. We describe the characteristics of such rules in the context of a market for ideas, and illustrate their importance in two developments central to the growth of modern economies: the rise of the modern state with its legitimacy based on consent, and the rise of modern science-based technology that was the product of the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment.

Suggested Citation

  • Greif, Avner & Mokyr, Joel, 2017. "Cognitive rules, institutions, and economic growth: Douglass North and beyond," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 25-52, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:13:y:2017:i:01:p:25-52_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1744137416000370/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Willemien Kets & Alvaro Sandroni, 2021. "A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 287-333.
    2. Gabriela Przeslawska, 2019. "Significance of uncertainty in explaining institutional change in Douglass C. North’s approach," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(3), pages 331-346, September.
    3. Dieter Bögenhold, 2020. "History of Economic Thought as an Analytic Tool: why Past Intellectual Ideas Must Be Acknowledged as Lighthouses for the Future," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 26(1), pages 73-87, February.
    4. Karaja, Elira & Rubin, Jared, 2022. "Θ The cultural transmission of trust norms: Evidence from a lab in the field on a natural experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-19.
    5. Christopher J. Boudreaux & Daniel L. Bennett & David S. Lucas & Boris N. Nikolaev, 2023. "Taking mental models seriously: institutions, entrepreneurship, and the mediating role of socio-cognitive traits," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 465-493, August.
    6. Liu, Feifei & He, Xinming & Wang, Tao, 2023. "In the name of the family: The effect of CEO clan culture background on firm internationalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Izabela Ostoj, 2019. "On the validity of the division into formal and informal institutions," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(1), pages 61-72, March.
    8. Raoul Beunen & Kristof Van Assche & Monica Gruezmacher, 2022. "Evolutionary Perspectives on Environmental Governance: Strategy and the Co-Construction of Governance, Community, and Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Frolov, Daniil, 2019. "The manifesto of post-institutionalism: institutional complexity research agenda," MPRA Paper 97662, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Amendolagine, Vito & von Jacobi, Nadia, 2023. "Symbiotic relationships among formal and informal institutions: Comparing five Brazilian cultural ecosystems," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    11. Yang Zhou, 2022. "Economic institutions and horizontal checks and balances in the Chinese bureaucratic system: evidence at the prefecture-city level," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 133-160, June.
    12. Chenxi Zhou & Kent Ngan-Cheung Hui & Kevin Zheng Zhou & Yuanyuan Gong, 2023. "Is failure the mother of success? Prior failure experience and cross-border M&A completion by emerging market firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 775-813, June.
    13. Katja Kalkschmied & Joern Kleinert, 2024. "Market building by strategic interactions: The role of powerful private actors and the state," Graz Economics Papers 2024-12, University of Graz, Department of Economics.
    14. Hoff,Karla & Jalan,Jyotsna & Santra,Sattwik, 2021. "Participatory Theater Empowers Women : Evidence from India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9680, The World Bank.
    15. Frolov, Daniil, 2019. "Постинституционализм: Программа Исследований За Пределами Институционального Мейнстрима [Post-institutionalism: research program beyond the institutional mainstream]," MPRA Paper 92328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Samuel Kwaku Agyei & Godwin Adolf Idan, 2022. "Trade Openness, Institutions, and Inclusive Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:13:y:2017:i:01:p:25-52_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.