In the article the author intends to provide a selective, yet fairly comprehensive review of historical roots and trends of Institutional Economics. Institutional Economics is not an integrated theory based on a set of common hypotheses, but rather a combination of various elements coming from different traditions and different social sciences. However, despite diversity there is a central tenet of both the 'old' and the 'new' institutionalism: that institutions matter in shaping economic performance and economic behavior. Economic processes do not take place outside of the historical or social context; they take place within given institutions. The author attempts to classifying different views concerning these issues and explain how institutional economics relates to neoclassical economics and other social sciences.
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