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Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2004

C. Mantzavinos ,
Douglass C. North  and
Syed Shariq
C. Mantzavinos
Affiliation:
Is a senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany ([email protected]). He is the author of Individuals, Institutions, and Markets
Douglass C. North
Affiliation:
Is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis ([email protected])
Syed Shariq
Affiliation:
Is the Kozmetsky Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for International Studies, Stanford University ([email protected])
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Abstract

In this article, we provide a broad overview of the interplay among cognition, belief systems, and institutions, and how they affect economic performance. We argue that a deeper understanding of institutions' emergence, their working properties, and their effect on economic and political outcomes should begin from an analysis of cognitive processes. We explore the nature of individual and collective learning, stressing that the issue is not whether agents are perfectly or boundedly rational, but rather how human beings actually reason and choose, individually and in collective settings. We then tie the processes of learning to institutional analysis, providing arguments in favor of what can be characterized as “cognitive institutionalism.” Besides, we show that a full treatment of the phenomenon of path dependence should start at the cognitive level, proceed at the institutional level, and culminate at the economic level.

Type
Articles
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 75 - 84
Copyright
2004 by the American Political Science Association

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