2023 (20), №3

System Paradigm and Development of Alternative Strategies in Constructing Institutional Economic Theories

For citation: 

Biryukov, V. V. (2023). System Paradigm and Development of Alternative Strategies in Constructing Institutional Economic Theories. AlterEconomics, 20(3), 505–526. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2023.20-3.2

Abstract:

This article addresses the key aspects of constructing contemporary theories in institutional economics. The goal is to uncover the paradigmatic framework guiding different strategies in institutional theo­ries and their potential for change. Using interdisciplinary constructivist methods from social sciences, the study highlights the intersubjective nature of economics and contrasts the principles that serve as the foundation for the development of institutional economic theories. The study’s historical review shows that shared research strategies have emerged from a paradigm rooted in the marginalist revolution. In this approach, collective phenomena explain the behavior of agents pursuing utilitarian motives. The unorthodox strategy involves constructing macro-, micro-, and historical-economic theories based on the distinction of two main levels of research: value-normative and institutional-instrumental. Meanwhile, the mainstream strategy concentrates only on institutions and tools. Relying on the established paradigm results in the creation of structuralist and eclectic theories that lead to a fragmented view of the economy. The paper advocates a transition to a poststructura­list paradigm via constructivist logic. This shift entails examining the relationship between agents and institutions from the perspective of economic culture, values, and ideas, rather than psychology. This approach enables a multi-level assessment of the economy as a system of institutions forged through value compromise. It also allows us to show internal changes, considering the impact of path determinacy linked to new values and ideas (ideational path determinacy).

PDF full
Downloaded: 79

Vitaly V. Biryukov — Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Professor of the Department of Economics and Personnel Management, Omsk Humanitarian Academy; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3385-3603 (2a, 4th Cheluskintsev St., Omsk, 644105, Russian Federation; e-mail: sciencebvv@gmail.com).

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2016). Pochemu odni strany bogatye, a drugie bednye [Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty]. Moscow, Russia: AST Publ., 693. (In Russ.)

Alekseyeva, T. A. (2022). Agent-strukturnye otnosheniya: metodologiya konstruktivizma [Agent-structure Relations: Methodology of Constructivism]. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya [Polis. Political Studies], 4, 77–93. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.04.07 (In Russ.)

Alesina, A., & Giuliano, P. (2015). Culture and Institutions. Journal of Economic Literature, 53 (4), 898–944. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.53.4.898

Arrow, K. J. (1994). Methodological individualism and social knowledge. The American Economic Review, 84 (2), 1–9.

Arrow, K. J. (1995). K teorii cenovogo prisposobleniya [Toward a Theory of Price Adjustment]. Vehi ekonomicheskoy mysli. T. 2. Teoriya firmy [Milestones of Economic Thought. Vol. 2. Theory of the firm] (pp. 432–447). St. Petersburg, Russia: Economic School Publ. (In Russ.)

Arthur, W. B. (2021). Foundations of Complexity Economics. Nature Review Physics, 3, 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-00273-3

Avtonomov, V. S. (2022). Tri istochnika i tri geroya marzhinalistskoi revolyutsii [Three Sources and Three Heroes of Marginal Revolution]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 7, 104–122. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2022-7-104-122 (In Russ.)

Baumol, W. (2001). Chego ne znal Alfred Marshall: vklad XX stoletiya v ekonomicheskuyu teoriyu [What Alfred Marshall Did Not Know: The Contribution of the XX Century to Economic Theory]. Voprosy ekonomiki, 2, 73–107. (In Russ.)

Biryukov, V. (2020). Cennosti, instituty i ekonomicheskoe razvitie [Values, Institutions and Economic Development]. Obshhestvo i ekonomika [Society and economics], 4, 5–24. https://doi.org/10.31857/S020736760009149-2 (In Russ.)

Biryukov, V. (2021). Dualisticheskaya teoriya stoimosti i osobennosti izucheniya ekonomiki kak slozhnoi sistemy [The Dualistic Theory of Value and Features of the Study of Economics as a Complex System]. Obshhestvo i ekonomika [Society and economics], 10, 20–40. https://doi.org/10.31857/S020736760015969-4 (In Russ.)

Biryukov, V. V. (2022). Al’ternativnye institutsional’nye strategii razrabotki monetarnykh teorii [Alternative Institutional Strategies for Constructing Monetary Theories]. AlterEconomics, 19 (2), 262–282. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2022.19-2.4 (In Russ.)

Boyer, R. (1997). Teoriya regulyatsii: Kriticheskii analiz [Regulation Theory: Critical Analysis]. Moscow, Russia: Scientific Research Center “Science for Society”: Russian State University for the Humanities, 212. (In Russ.)

Cohen, A. J., & Harcourt G. C. (2003). Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17 (1), 199–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/089533003321165010

Dubyanskiy, A. N. (2022). Sovremennaya denezhnaya teoriya: istoricheskaya retrospektiva [Modern Monetary Theory: A Historical Retrospective]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Ekonomika [St Petersburg University Journal of Economic Studies], 38 (3), 416–435. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu05.2022.304 (In Russ.)

Felin, T., & Foss, N. (2019). Microfoundations for Institutional Theory? Microfoundations of Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 65B (pp. 393–408)). In Haack P., Sieweke J., Wessel L. (Eds.). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X2019000065B031

Frolov, D. P. (2022). Budushchee plyuralistichnoi institutsional’noi teorii [The Future of Pluralistic Institutional Theory]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 4, 45–69. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2022-4-45-69 (In Russ.)

Galbraith, K. (2015). The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth. NY, London: Simon & Schuster, 304.

Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R., & Lounsbury, M. (2011). Institutional Complexity and Organizational Responses. The Academy of Management Annals, 5 (1), 317–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2011.590299

Greif, A., & Mokyr, J. (2017). Cognitive Rules, Institutions, and Economic Growth: Douglass North and Beyond. Journal of Institutional Economics, 13 (1), 25–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137416000370

Hay, C. (2002). Political Analysis. Hampshire, N.Y.: Palgrave, 314. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-62911-0

Hayek, F. A. (2011). Konstitutsiya svobody [The Constitution of Liberty]. Moscow, Russia: Novoe Izdatelstvo Publ., 528. (In Russ.)

Hodgson, G. M. (2007). Institutions and Individuals: Interaction and Evolution. Organization Studies, 28 (1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607067832

Hodgson, G. M. (2019). Prospects for Institutional Research. RAUSP Management Journal, 54 (1), 112–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/RAUSP-11-2018-0112

Inglehart, R. (2018). Kul’turnaya evolyutsiya: kak izmenyaetsya chelovecheskie motivatsii i kak menyaetsya etot mir [Cultural Evolution: How People’s Motivations are Changing and How this is Changing the World]. Translated from English by S. L. Lopatina. In M. A. Zavadskaya, V. V. Kosenko, A. A. Shirokanova (Eds.). Moscow, Russia: Mysl Publ., 347. (In Russ.)

Kirdina, S. (2013) Metodologicheskii individualizm i metodologicheskii institutsionalizm [Methodological Individualism and Methodological Institutionalism]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 10, 66–89. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2013-10-66-89 (In Russ.)

Kirdina-Chandler, S. G. (2021). Sistemnaya paradigma i perspektivy institutsional’nogo sinteza v ekonomike [The System Paradigm and the Prospects for “Institutional Synthesis” in Economic Theory]. Ekonomicheskaya nauka sovremennoi Rossii [Economics of Contemporary Russia], 3 (94), 17–32. https://doi.org/10.33293/1609-1442-2021-3(94)-17-32 (In Russ.)

Kleiner, G. B. (2019). Printsipy dvoistvennosti v svete sistemnoi ekonomicheskoi teorii [The Principles of Duality in the Light of the System Economic Theory]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 11, 127–149. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2019-11-127-149 (In Russ.)

Kleiner, G. B. (2020). Spiral’naya dinamika, sistemnye tsikly i novye organizatsionnye modeli: perla­mutrovye predpriyatiya [Spiral Dynamics, System Cycles and New Organizational Models: Pearlescent Enterprises]. Rossiyskiy zhurnal menedzhmenta [Russian Management Journal], 18 (4), 471–496. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu18.2020.401 (In Russ.)

Komlos, J. (2021). How to Change Economics 101. Challenge, 64 (3), 182–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2021.1932135

Kurz, H. (2016). German and Austrian Schools. In H. D. Kurz, G. Faccarello (Eds.). Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis. Vol. II. (pp. 252–273). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Maevsky, V. I., & Rubinstein, A. A. (2021). Koncepciya makroekonomicheskoy politiki kompromissa mezhdu infljaciey i rostom [The Concept of Macroeconomic Policy Based on the Compromise between Inflation and Growth]. Zhurnal ekonomicheskoj teorii [Russian Journal of Economic Theory], 18 (4), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.31063/2073-6517/2021.18-4.1 (In Russ.)

Makasheva, N. A. (2022). Marzhinalistskaya revolyutsiya: sobytie, protsess, mif? [The Marginalist Revolution: An Event, a Process or a Myth?]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 11, 5–23. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2022-11-5-23 (In Russ.)

Mayevsky, V. (2010). Krugooborot osnovnogo kapitala i ekonomicheskaya teoriya [Reproduction of Fixed Capital and Economic Theory]. Voprosy ekonomiki, 3, 65–85. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2010-3-65-85 (In Russ.)

McCloskey, D. (2011). Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 592.

Ménard, C., & Shirley, M. M. (2014). The Future of New Institutional Economics: From Early Intuitions to a New Paradigm? Journal of Institutional Economics, 10 (4), 541–565. https://doi.org/10.1017/S174413741400006X

Mikeshina, L. A. (2020). Problema tsennostei v sotsiologicheskoi nauke — epistemologicheskii analiz [The Problem of Values in Modern Sociology: An Epistemological Analysis]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research], 12, 44–53. https://doi.org/10.31857/S013216250011917-1 (In Russ.)

Mitchell, W., Wray, L. R., & Watts, W. (2019). Macroeconomics. London: Macmillan; Red Globe Press, 604.

Moon, D. S. (2013). Tissue on the Bones: Towards the Development of a Post-Structuralist Institutionalism. Politics, 33 (2), 112–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.12004

Nekipelov, A. D. (2019). Krizis v ekonomicheskoy nauke — priroda i puti preodoleniya [The Crisis in Economics — Nature and Ways to Overcome it]. Vestnik Rossijskoj Akademii nauk [Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences], 89 (1), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869-587389124-37 (In Russ.)

Nelson, R. R., & Winter, S. G. (2002). Evolyutsionnaya teoriya ekonomicheskikh izmenenii [An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change]. Translated from English by M. Kazhdan, V. Makarov. Moscow, Russia: Delo Publ., 536. (In Russ.)

North, D. C. (1997). Instituty, institutsional’nye izmeneniya i funktsionirovanie ekonomiki [Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance]. Translated from English by A. N. Nesterenko. In B. Z. Milner (Ed.). Moscow, Russia: Nachala, 180. (In Russ.)

North, D. C., Wallis, J. J., & Weingast, B. R. (2011). Nasilie i sotsial’nye poryadki: Kontseptual’nye ramki dlya interpretatsii pis’mennoi istorii chelovechestva [Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History]. Translated from English by D. Uzlaner, M. Markov, D. Raskov, A. Raskova. Moscow, Russia: Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy Publ., 480. (In Russ.)

O’Hara, P. (2009). Sovremennye printsipy neortodoksal’noi politicheskoi ekonomiki [Contemporary
Principles of Heterodox Political Economy]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 12, 38–57. https://doi.org/10.32609/
0042-8736-2009-12-38-57 (In Russ.)

Polterovich, V. M. (2022). Na puti k obshchei teorii sotsial’no-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya: k sintezu dvukh kanonov [On the Way to a General Theory of Socio-Economic Development: Towards the Synthesis of Two Canons]. Voprosy teoreticheskoy economiki [Issues of Economic Theory], 1, 48–57. https://doi.org/110.52342/2587-7666VTE_2022_1_48_57 (In Russ.)

Rajan, R. (2019). The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind. New York: Penguin Press, 464.

Robinson, J. (1953). The Production Function and the Theory of Capital. Review of Economic Studies, 21 (2), 81–106.

Rodrik, D. (2014). When Ideas Trump Interests: Preferences, Worldviews, and Policy Innovations. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28 (1), 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.28.1.189

Samuels, W. J. (2002) Institutsional’naya ekonomicheskaya teoriya [Institutional Economics].
Panorama ekonomicheskoi mysli v kontse 20 veka [Companion to Contemporary Economic Thought]. Vol. 1 (pp. 125–141). St. Petersburg, Russia: Economic School Publ. (In Russ.)

Sandel, M. (2012). What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. London: Allen Lane, 244.

Schumpeter, J. (2001). Istoriya ekonomicheskogo analiza [History of Economic Analysis]. In 3 Vols. Vol. 3. Translated from English. In V. S. Avtonomov (Ed.). St. Petersburg, Russia: Economic School Publ., 688. (In Russ.)

Shmerlina, I. A. (2016). “Institutsional’naya logika”: kriticheskiy analiz napravleniya [“Institutional Logics”: Critical Analysis of the Direction]. Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal [Sociological Journal], 22 (4), 110–138. https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2016.22.4.4812 (In Russ.)

Stiglitz, J. E. (2018). Where Modern Macroeconomics Went Wrong. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 34 (1–2), 70–106.

Stiglitz, J. E. (2019). People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent. New York; London: W.W. Norton, 366.

Streissler, E. (1990). The Influence of German Economics on the Work of Menger and Marshall. In B. Caldwell (Ed.). Carl Menger and His Legacy in Economics (pp. 31–68). Durham: Duke University Press.

Tambovtsev, V. L. (2021). Vozmozhna li edinaya institutsional’naya ekonomicheskaya teoriya? [Is Unified Institutional Economics Possible?]. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 1, 33–51. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2021-1-33-51 (In Russ.)

Teece, D. J. (2019). A Capability Theory of the Firm: An Economics and (Strategic) Management Perspective. New Zealand Economic Papers, 53 (1), 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00779954.2017.1371208

Welzel, Ch. (2017). Rozhdenie svobody [Freedom Rising]. Moscow, Russia: Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 403. (In Russ.)

Whaley, L. (2018). The Critical Institutional Analysis and Development (CIAD) Framework.
International Journal of the Commons, 12 (2), 137–161. https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.848