《威廉姆森新制度经济学》.pdf

Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XXXVIII (September 2000) pp. 595–613 Williamson: The New Institutional Economics The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead OLIVER E. WILLIAMSON1 1 Introduction velopment (1994, p. 75). In considera- tion, however, of the “splendid plausi- OPEN MY DISCUSSION of the new in- bility of error” to which Lord Acton re- I stitutional economics with a confes- fers,2 we need to sort the sheep from sion, an assertion, and a recommenda- the goats. That is accomplished by ask- tion. The confession is that we are still ing each would-be theory to advance re- very ignorant about institutions. The as- futable implications to which the data sertion is that the past quarter century are applied has witnessed enormous progress in the R. C. O. Matthews, in his presidential study of institutions. The recommenda- address to the Royal Economic Society tion is that, awaiting a unified theory, we in 1986, pronounced that “the econom- should be accepting of pluralism ics of institutions has become one of the Chief among the causes of ignorance liveliest areas in our discipline” (Mat- is that institutions are very complex thews 1986, p. 903). Such a pronounce- That neoclassical economics was dismis- ment was a surprise to most of the pro- sive of institutions and that much of or- fession. Hadn’t institutional economics ganization theory lacked scientific am- long since been relegated to the history bitions