CJO - Abstract - Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance

Perspectives on Politics (2004), 2 : 75-84 Cambridge University Press

Copyright © 2004 by the American Political Science Association

doi:10.1017.S1537592704000635

Published online by Cambridge University Press 10 Jun 2004

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Perspectives on Politics (2004), 2:1:75-84 American Political Science Association
Copyright © 2004 by the American Political Science Association
doi:10.1017/S1537592704000635

Articles

Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance

C. Mantzavinos ^a1, Douglass C. North ^a2 and Syed Shariq ^a3
^a1 Is a senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany (mantzavinos@mpprdg.mpg.de). He is the author of Individuals, Institutions, and Markets
^a2 Is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis (batt@wueconc.wustl.edu)
^a3 Is the Kozmetsky Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for International Studies, Stanford University (sshariq@stanford.edu)

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.