Institutional Law and Economics: The Legal-Economic Nexus

This guest blog post is posted on behalf of the Center's visiting scholar,  Rodrigo Constantino Jeronimo. Rodrigo is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Sao Paulo State University (Unesp/Brazil) and is visiting the Center to work with Eric Scorsone and I on the work of John R. Commons. Commons and Smith on Growing Markets The book “Institutional Economics: its place in political economy” (1934) is one of John R. Commons` densest works in his attempts to provide a clear and organized exposition of the theoretical basis for what he conceived as his institutional economic theory. Undoubtedly, Commons` IE and “The Legal Foundations of Capitalism” (1924) are fundamental references for those aiming at investigating the constitutive elements of a “Commonsian approach” to economics and its phenomena. However, we are talking about a book that had as one of its main objectives reconstructing the history of economic though and placing collective action as the central feature of the economic inv...

 The New York Times The Daily podcast for October 11th covered climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in two North Carolina towns subject to significant flood events over the past several years: Avon and Fair Bluff. It's been 8 year since Hurricane Matthew put the towns under water; 4 since Florence. Both towns are struggling from the realities of the physical collapse caused by flooding and now economic collapse for numerous reasons, notably the loss of residents following each major flood event. In the case of Fair Bluff (pop. 545), they rely on grants and what amounts to many volunteer hours to keep things going and rebuild after every set back. Current economic development goals include rebuilding downtown on higher ground-- but that requires significant funds and a tax base. They discuss federal aid (notably FEMA) who offer to buy out residents in at-risk areas, essentially encouraging residents to leave rather than invest in a rebuild time after time.  This de...