IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpeh/9612004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Performance Through Time: The Limits to Knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Douglass C. North

Abstract

In this essay I propose to explore what we can and cannot learn about the way economies evolve over time. The focus of the essay is on the dynamics of change--political, social, and of course economic; and therefore the key word is time. In section I I outline the process of economic change as I understand it; in section II I specify the questions we must answer in order to understand that process; in the final section I tentatively identify which of those questions I believe are amenable to being answered with sufficient research and which I believe to be beyond our ability to answer. I need hardly add that my conclusions are highly speculative.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglass C. North, 1996. "Economic Performance Through Time: The Limits to Knowledge," Economic History 9612004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:9612004
    Note: Type of Document - Word Doc; prepared on IBM PC ; to print on HP Laser; pages: 23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/eh/papers/9612/9612004.doc.gz
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/eh/papers/9612/9612004.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/eh/papers/9612/9612004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/eh/papers/9612/9612004.ps.gz
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoffman, Elizabeth & McCabe, Kevin A & Smith, Vernon L, 1998. "Behavioral Foundations of Reciprocity: Experimental Economics and Evolutionary Psychology," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 335-352, July.
    2. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Giorgio Fagiolo, 1996. "Learning in evolutionary environment," CEEL Working Papers 9605, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    3. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1995. "Institutions And Economic Performance: Cross‐Country Tests Using Alternative Institutional Measures," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(3), pages 207-227, November.
    4. Arthur T. Denzau & Douglass C. North, 1994. "Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 3-31, February.
    5. Douglass C. North, 1993. "The Paradox of the West," Economic History 9309005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Greif, Avner, 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 912-950, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Katz, Jorge, 2001. "Structural reforms, productivity and technological change in Latin America," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 2277 edited by Eclac, May.
    2. Paquet, Gilles, 1998. "Evolutionary cognitive economics," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 343-357, September.
    3. Taub, Bart & Zhao, Rui, 2008. "Why doesn't Luxembourg send all its capital to India?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1335-1346, December.
    4. Kispál-Vitai, Zsuzsanna, 2006. "Gondolatok a szövetkezetelmélet fejlődéséről [Ideas for developing cooperative theory]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 69-84.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Asoni, 2008. "Protection Of Property Rights And Growth As Political Equilibria," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 953-987, December.
    2. Galinato, Gregmar I. & Chouinard, Hayley H., 2018. "Strategic interaction and institutional quality determinants of environmental regulations," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 114-132.
    3. Hirokazu Takizawa, 2017. "Masahiko Aoki’s conception of institutions," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 523-540, December.
    4. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2005. "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 385-472, Elsevier.
    5. Ashok Chakravarti, 2012. "Institutions, Economic Performance and the Visible Hand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14751.
    6. Rafael Di Tella & Robert MacCulloch, 2009. "Why Doesn't Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 40(1 (Spring), pages 285-332.
    7. Natkhov, T. & Polishchuk, L., 2017. "Political Economy of Institutions and Development: The Importance of Being Inclusive. Reflection on "Why Nations Fail" by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson. Part I. Institutions and Economic Devel," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 12-38.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu & Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2018. "Determinants of Property Rights Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(4), pages 1291-1308, December.
    9. Joachim Zweynert, 2006. "Shared Mental Models, Catch-up Development and Economic Policy-Making: The Case of Germany after World War II and its Significance for Contemporary Russia," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 457-478, Summer.
    10. Gonzalo Caballero, 2004. "Instituciones e historia económica: enfoques y teorías institucionales," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 6(10), pages 135-157, January-J.
    11. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2007. "Poverty traps: a perspective from development economics," Working Papers hal-04139210, HAL.
    12. Avner Ben-Ner & Louis Putterman, "undated". "Trust in the New Economy," Working Papers 1102, Human Resources and Labor Studies, University of Minnesota (Twin Cities Campus).
    13. Kevin H. O'Rourke, 2001. "Culture, politics and innovation: evidence from the creameries," Trinity Economics Papers 200120, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    14. Sumru Altug & Fabio Canova, 2014. "Do Institutions and Culture Matter for Business Cycles?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 93-122, February.
    15. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    16. Pitlik, Hans & Rode, Martin, 2017. "Individualistic values, institutional trust, and interventionist attitudes," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 575-598, September.
    17. Kurt Annen, 2005. "Economic Returns to Social Capital in the Urban Informal Sector in Developing Countries: Micro Evidence from Small Textile Producers in Bolivia," Development and Comp Systems 0511011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Di Tella, Rafael & Donna, Javier & MacCulloch, Robert, 2007. "Oil, Macro Volatility and Crime in the Determination of Beliefs in Venezuela," MPRA Paper 67002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Glawe, Linda & Wagner, Helmut, 2017. "The Deep Determinants of the Middle-Income Trap," CEAMeS Discussion Paper Series 10/2017, University of Hagen, Center for East Asia Macro-economic Studies (CEAMeS), revised 2017.
    20. Zeghni, Sylvain & Fabry, Nathalie, 2008. "Building institutions for growth and human developement : an economic perspective applied to transitional countries of Europe and CIS," MPRA Paper 9235, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    evolve change history economies;

    JEL classification:

    • N - Economic History

    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:wpa:wuwpeh:9612004. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.