economic sociology_ the european electronic newsletter Vol ume 13, N umber 1 | November 20 11 13.1 Editor Vadim Radaev, Higher School of Economics, Moscow Book Review Editor Mark Lutter, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Editorial Board Patrik Aspers, Stockholm University Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne Johan Heilbron, Centre de Sociologie Européenne, Paris Richard Swedberg, Cornell University, Ithaca Table of Contents Note from the editor _2 Interview with John Nye _4 New Institutional Economics: A State-of-the-Art Review for Economic Sociologists by Rinat Menyashev, Timur Natkhov, Leonid Polishchuk, and Georgiy Syunyaev_12 “New Institutional Economics” versus “Economics of Conventions” by Olivier Favereau_22 Petering Out or Flaming Up? New Institutional Economics in East-Central Europe by János Mátyas Kovács_28 Call for Papers _40 Announcement _42 Book Reviews_ 44 http://econsoc.mpifg.de Note from the editor 2 Note from the editor Dear reader, work, continuous debate on the role of the state in devel- opment. He explains why Elinor Ostrom was selected by It is a great pleasure to take editorial responsibilities after the Nobel Committee and how classifications and typolo- Nigel Dodd and all previous distinguished editors who have gies could be a bridge between economics and sociology. done an excellent job. And I am thankful to the Editorial Finally, most important studies in the NIE are recommend- Board for this opportunity to contribute to the develop- ed for sociologists. ment of the Newsletter . I have been publishing the ‘Eco- nomic Sociology’ e-journal for a Russian speaking audience Then a brief but comprehensive review of the state-of-the- for more than eleven years. And I fully understand how art in the new institutional economics is presented by a difficult it is to provide both sustainability of the project group of institutional economists led by Leonid Polishchuk. and high quality of the papers. It was written specifically for the Economic Sociology Newsletter and selects issues which could be relevant for When planning this work I analyzed the contents of the economic sociologists. The paper highlights the current Newsletter over the past years. There are plenty of good pa- agenda and major areas of research with special focus on pers and interviews bringing light to many areas of economic recent studies. Among the topics you will find property sociology and related fields including anthropology, geogra- rights allocation and rent-seeking, impact of institutions on phy, law, and accounting. Surprisingly, we have only one economic development, formal and informal institutions, review devoted to economic theory in volume 9 with the norms and trust. The survey tends to demonstrate that NIE exception of numerous highlights on performativity approach. is a natural field for inter-disciplinary collaboration be- I believe that in doing economic sociology we should pay tween economists and sociologists. References to most more attention to what is going on in economic theory. important literature are provided. Keeping this in mind, I decided to devote the first issue to Our next author, Olivier Favereau is well known as one of the state of the art in contemporary economic theory. As the founding fathers and prominent figures in French eco- the field is very broad and extremely diverse, we will focus nomics of conventions which is viewed as one of alterna- on a single, increasingly influential stream of research tive approaches to the institutional analysis of economy which should be of special interest for economic sociolo- and society. Favereau provides a reflexive external view on gists, i. e. new institutional economics. The idea is not to the new institutional economics confronting this research confine it to a regular critique of economists’ failures and program with that of economics of convention. He found limitations of their analysis but to consider their assump- many important similarities at the level of key assumptions tions and present their most recent achievements. Most of and demonstrated how they are used to produce rather economic sociologists know quite well the classic works of different conclusions and motivate quite different styles of Oliver Williamson and Douglass North. But the field is mov- research. Special attention is paid to divergent approaches ing, and it is important to see major trends and emerging to the model of bounded rationality. areas overlapping with economic sociology. In the last paper János Mátyás Kovács reflects upon con- We start with an interview recorded with John Nye. He is a troversies in the reception of the new institutional econom- representative of a younger generation of researchers ic theories in Eastern Europe. Large-scale importation of applying the ideas of the new institutional economics to a the new institutional economics (NIE) was predicted at the great variety of subject areas. At the same time John Nye beginning of postcommunist transformation in Eastern belongs to the group of scholars including Lee and Alex- Europe experimenting with deep-going institutional andra Benham, Douglass North, Ronald Coase, Oliver Wil- change. Textbook Marxism was vanishing while hardcore liamson, Mary Shirley, Claude Menard, Scott Masten who economics was not widely spread. Under these conditions established the International Society of New institutional the NIE and Ordo liberalism could be seen as good options Economics in 1997. John speaks on a diversity of methodo- for many economists and sociologists. Surprisingly, Eastern logical approaches, an increasing interest in experimental Europe was not flooded with the NIE concepts. Moreover, the economic sociology_the european electronic newsletter Volume 13, Number 1 (November 2011) Note from the editor 3 NIE still has rather low profile among the economists in the Finally, we announce a big conference in economic sociol- region giving way to rather eclectic research programmes. ogy which will take place in Moscow in October 2012. Using results of a research project carried out in eight coun- tries, János Kovács gives a comprehensive picture of this pecu- I would like to thank all the contributors to this issue for liar transformation in economic and social sciences. their productive efforts. Let me stop at this point. And please meet the new institutional economics. Beyond the main topic of this issue, a new book of Philippe Steiner Durkheim and the Birth of Economic Sociology is Vadim Radaev reviewed. [email protected] economic sociology_the european electronic newsletter Volume 13, Number 1 (November 2011) Interview with John Nye 4 Interview with John Nye John Nye is a Professor of Economics at George Mason through St. Louis. For instance, Ronald Coase, Oliver Wil- University and holds the Frederic Bastiat Chair in Political liamson, and Elinor Ostrom spoke several times at Wash- Economy at the Mercatus Center. He is a specialist in new ington University in just a few years time. Also people like institutional economics and economic history. He was a Robert Fogel, Joel Mokyr, Vernon Smith, and Avner Greif founding member of the International Society for the New came regularly to Washington University. Institutional Economics. With John Drobak, he co-edited Frontiers in the New Institutional Economics , 1997. His Finally, in 1997 a decision was made to start a new organi- articles have been published in a variety of journals includ- zation which became the International Society for New ing the Journal of Economic History, Journal of Money, Institutional Economics (ISNIE). The early organizing group Credit and Banking, and Journal of Economic Behavior and included Lee and Alexandra Benham, Douglass North, Organization . His book on trade war, War, Wine and Tax- Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, Mary Shirley, Claude es , appeared in 2007 from Princeton University Press. Menard, Scott Masten and myself as well as a few others. After these early meetings came the organization. It was important that there was a long discussion about what How did you personally get affiliated was to be included in the NIE and we decided to take a with the new institutional economic “big tent” approach. There was no single methodological theory? What attracted you to this system that we felt was going to be the determining part field? of the NIE. The feeling was that there were independent schools of thought all working in parallel and overlapping This is a good question. I actually began my career as a ways. There was research into organizations and hierar- straightforward cliometrician. I was applying economic chies by people like Coase, Williamson and Harold Dem- ideas and econometric techniques to the study of econom- setz. But also there was political economy work by those ic history. But my first job was when I was hired as an who were inspired by North or Olson and there was over- assistant professor in the Economics Department at Wash- lap with the newer, more formal work in political science ington University in St. Louis. There I had the chance to pioneered by Riker, Shepsle… work with Douglass North and many other people who played important roles as founders of the new institutional economics. Washington University at that time (it was the And economic history? late 1980s) was a centre of the modern work in political economy and the new institutional economics, and par- And economic history, exactly. We also had people in polit- ticularly, in political science and economics. Barry ical economy like Barry Weingast. Of course, James Bu- Weingast, James Alt, Ken Shepsle, Itai Sened, and Gary chanan and Gordon Tullock were to be considered part of Miller were all there. I was also hired around the same time the group although Buchanan did not participate initially. as other young scholars such as Jack Knight in Political However Tullock spoke at the very first meeting Science and Jean Ensminger in Anthropology. It was like a small club. Later on Norman Schofield, Gary Cox, and Matt McCubbins joined us.