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Timeline
Date
18.2. Institutions
25.2. Institutions II
4.3. Classical Institutionalism and New Institutional Economics
11.3. Property rights and resource regimes, Commons
18.3. Doughnot Economics: From Planetary Boundaries to thinking how an
economy can be regenerative by design (Claudio Cattaneo)
25.3. Application of the doughnut at the city scale with Barcelona as an
example (Claudio Cattaneo)
1.4. Ecological Resource Economics
8.4. Applications: water, forests, fisheries
15.4. <Great Friday>
22.4. The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in India
29.4. Q&A, discussion
6.5. Presentations I
13.5. Presentations II
20.5. Debate, Open Space, Experiment
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Classical Institutional Economics
• Thorstein Veblen (economist and sociologist): leisure class, conspicuous consumption (lifestyle?)
(prestige / status consumption of the new rich, not the wealthy)
• John Dewey (philosopher, psychologist, educational reformer): trans-action versus inter-action –
relational approach
(founder of pragmatist philosophy, ..)
• John R. Commons (institutional economist): managerial, rationing & bargaining transactions
(fair regulation, political economics, collective action, ..)
ØInstitutional Economics aims to highlight that economics is always also political (e.g., also markets
need rules)
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Institutional Economics and other sub-schools
• Law & Economics: Application of economic/neoclassical theory to law, mostly formal,
mathematical analysis and experimental research
• Public Choice: Application of economic theory to political institutions, mostly formal,
mathematical analysis and experimental research
• New Political Economy: Interdisciplinary, rejects neoclassical theory, reflects economics
assumptions
• Convention Theory: French school of organizational institutionalism
ØThe education of lawyers and other social scientists is usually separated. More
integration needed?
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Greeting institutions
• Handshakes / Namaste / Chinese greeting /
…
ØWhy do greetings exist?
ØIs greeting a convention or a norm?
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Types of institutions
• Conventions
• Norms
• Legal rules
Vatn 2005, p. 65
e.g., property rights & forest fruits
e.g., institutional change
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Property Rights
• Property rights are formal and informal institutions that define
„who has access to which resources [object] or benefit streams
and under what conditions“ (Vatn 2005)
• Property rights are socially defined and may differ from the
actual physical possession
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Bundle of Rights
• Property rights with respect to a particular resource are usually
highly differentiated (= ‚bundle of rights’) (Bromley 1991):
• Right to use (usus)
• Right to appropriate the returns (usus fructus)
• Right to change form, substance or location (abusus)
• Right to exclude other actors from access and use
• Right to transfer part or all of the above rights
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Ø The Landlord‘s Game - Henry George
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Bundles of Rights and Positions of
Actors
• Different parts of the bundle of rights of a particular
resource can be assigned to different actors or actor groups
(Ostrom & Schlager 1996: 133):
Owner Proprietor Claimant Authorized
User
Authorized
Entrant
Access X X X X X
Withdrawal X X X X
Management X X X
Exclusion X X
Alienation X
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Grammar of institutions: ADICO
Vatn 2005, p. 67
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The individual and society
ØPositivist, Constructivist, Realist
ØMethodological Individualism vs. Holism: Systemism/Relationism/Institutionalism
ØStructuration and Critical Realism (Anthony Giddens, Roy Bhaskar, Margaret Archer)
ØDifferent types of structures (property rights, money, etc.)
Vatn 2005, p. 26
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