Courses Description

Course outline
The aim of the course is to equip students with the basic principles, concepts, and analytical tools of the New Institutional Economics. In particular the course will enable: (a) The smooth transition from the neoclassical thought to the dimensions and rhetoric of the Institutional Economics, (b) the familiarization and understanding of the key concepts and tools availed by the New Institutional Economics and (c) the understanding of the contribution of the New Institutional approach to the analysis of the economy.

The course is organized as follows:

• Introduction and overview of the course
• The economic man, behavioral hypotheses and methodological dilemmas
• The concept and theory of institutions
• Transaction costs
• Property rights
• Contractual obligations and contract theory
• Organizational structures: market, state, firm
• Institutional change