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Specialization in this world is rudimentary and self-sufficiency characterizes most individual households

— Douglass North Institutions (1990)

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Effective institutions raise the benefits of cooperative solutions or the costs of defection, to use game theoretic terms.

Institutions (1990)

The factors we have listed (innovation, economies of scale, education, capital accumulation, etc.) are not causes of growth; they are growth.

Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interactions. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, tradition, and code of conduct) and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights).

Institutions (1990)

Its objectives to suggest new paths for the study of European economic history rather than fit either of these standard formats. It is more than anything an agenda for new research.

International specialization and division of labor requires institutions and organizations to safeguard property rights across international boundaries so that capital markets as well as other kinds of exchange can take place with credible commitment on the part of the players.

Institutions (1990)

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