Threats and Risks of Nanoindustry Development

The paper deals with the negative aspects of nanotechnology development on the global and national scales. Possible economic, environmental and social risks and latent threats to the formation of nanoindustry and nanoproducts consumption are discussed. The conclusion about the need of intensive studies of this complex problem and development of regulatory mechanisms, legal frameworks and institutions of nanotechnology progress monitoring is made.

From transaction costs to transaction value: Overcoming the Coase-Williamson paradigm

The transaction cost economics has accumulated a mass of dogmatic concepts and assertions that have received high stability under the influence of path dependence. These include the dogma about transaction costs as frictions, the dogma about the unproductiveness of transactions as a generator of losses, Stigler-Coase theorem and the logic of transaction cost minimization, the dogma about the priority of institutions providing low-cost transactions. The listed dogmas underlie the prevailing tradition of transactional analysis – the Coase-Williamson paradigm – which, in turn, is the foundation of neo-institutional theory. Therefore, the community of new institutionalists implicitly block attempts of a serious revision of this dogmatics. The purpose of the article is to substantiate a post-institutional (alternative to the dominant institutional discourse) perspective for the development of transactional studies based on rethinking and combining forgotten theoretical alternatives. We are talking about Commons’s theory of transactions, Wallis-North’s theory of transaction sector and Zajac-Olsen’s theory of transaction value. The article provides arguments and examples in favor of the broader explanatory possibilities of post-institutional transactional analysis

Постинституциональная теория блокчейна: трансакционная ценность и ассамбляжи

The paper on the example of blockchain demonstrates the possibilities of post-institutionalism – a new generation of institutional methodologies and theories, alternative to the new institutional economics. Based on the theory of transaction value, it has been proved that radical reduction of transaction costs by blockchain technologies will not lead to the elimination of intermediaries, but will redirect them to improving the quality of transactions and expanding the offer of additional (including hyperrelevant) transaction services. Using the theory of institutional assemblages, it is argued that it is impossible to form a homogeneous system of blockchain institutions based solely on the principles of decentralization, transparency and openness. The institutional system of blockchain will be organically hybrid, combining elements of opposing institutional logics – regulatory and algorithmic law, Ricardian and smart contracts, private and public systems, uncontrollability and arbitration. Thus, the conclusions of the neoinstitutional theory of blockchain (Davidson, De Filippi, Potts, 2018) are refuted from post-institutional positions

From institutions to extitutions to the post-institutional theory of institutional anomalies

The paper proposes to abandon the one-sidedly negative interpretation of institutional anomalies (non-optimal, inefficient, dysfunctional institutions) and rethink them as the main products and manifestations of institutional complexity. The concept of extitutions is introduced, which are understood as models of social order that go beyond the bounds of institutions and are based on variations of norms. The extitutional interpretation of the nature of institutional anomalies allows a critical review of the traditionally associated dichotomies (e.g. opposition of ideal and dysfunctional, inclusive and extractive institutions), analytical approaches (functionalist, mechanistic, isolationist, static, etc.) and stereotypes (e.g. assessment of institutions from the standpoint of public interests, “presumption of guilt” of interest groups, stigmatization of hybrid institutional trajectories, etc.). The article proposed a set of conceptual shifts towards increasing the objectivity and realism of the analysis of institutional anomalies in line with the research program of post-institutionalism

From institutions to extitutions to the post-institutional theory of institutional anomalies

The paper proposes to abandon the one-sidedly negative interpretation of institutional anomalies (non-optimal, inefficient, dysfunctional institutions) and rethink them as the main products and manifestations of institutional complexity. The concept of extitutions is introduced, which are understood as models of social order that go beyond the bounds of institutions and are based on variations of norms. The extitutional interpretation of the nature of institutional anomalies allows a critical review of the traditionally associated dichotomies (e.g. opposition of ideal and dysfunctional, inclusive and extractive institutions), analytical approaches (functionalist, mechanistic, isolationist, static, etc.) and stereotypes (e.g. assessment of institutions from the standpoint of public interests, “presumption of guilt” of interest groups, stigmatization of hybrid institutional trajectories, etc.). The article proposed a set of conceptual shifts towards increasing the objectivity and realism of the analysis of institutional anomalies in line with the research program of post-institutionalism

Эво-дево: парадигмальный вызов для институционально-эволюционного анализа (версия 2.0)

In modern biological science there is a change in the paradigm of evolutionary research associated with the rejection of neo-Darwinism principles. The article discusses the prospect of using the conceptual ideas of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) as the new dominant metaphors of institutional-evolutionary analysis. For example, metaphors of niche construction and developmental system stimulate the rejection of externalism (securing the key role in selection for the environment) and dichotomous thinking (opposition of actors and the environment, micro- and macro-analysis). The concept of institutional configurations developed in this vein makes it possible to analytically combine institutional, agential and environmental factors in their interaction into a single framework. The metaphor of bricolage actualizes the importance of abandoning the optimization concepts of evolution and one-sidedly negative interpretation of institutional anomalies (dysfunctions, failures, traps, etc.) in favor of studying institutional kludges as quasi-optimal persistent institutions created by non-professional actors, and positively rethinking anomalous institutions as a main output of institutional complexity. The metaphor of modularity is associated with the abandonment of thinking in the spirit of traditional totally integrated systems and the transition to the research of assemblages – super-complex institutional systems based on multiple logics and orders for which heterogeneity, fragmentation and hybridity are organic properties and evolutionary advantage

Supply, Demand, and Minimum Wage: Unraveling U.S. Wage Inequality from 1963-2021

From 1963 to 2021, the U.S. evolved from a manual to a knowledge-based economy, intensifying the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Using the CPS ASEC supplements and building on Autor, Katz, and Kearny 2008, this study contrasts two perspectives: the traditionalist view, associating rising inequality with increased demand for skilled labor, and the revisionist view, which sees it as a one-off event due to declining real minimum wage. Analyzing 90-10 inequality, left-tail (50-10) vs. right-tail (90-50) inequality, and college vs. high-school wage premiums, findings suggest a secular rise in inequality driven by technological innovation and demand for skilled workers from 1963 to 2005. However, from 2005 to 2021, the revisionist claim finds merit, as state-level minimum wage adjustments affect the left tail. This highlights the complex dynamics of wage inequality over this period

Постинституционализм: программа исследований за пределами институционального мейнстрима

The paper examines the internal dualism of modern institutional economics manifested in division of orthodox or mainstream institutionalism (its axiomatics and dogmatics is represented by the Standard Model) and its opposition – post-institutionalism. It discusses the post-institutional agenda, covering a wide range of discussion issues beyond Standard Model – from the analysis of institutional complexity to introduction of the Evo-Devo paradigm into evolutionary research of institutions. It demonstrates that in the focus of post-institutionalism there are super-complicated institutional systems (assemblages) and related phenomena and processes (bricolage, kludges, anomalies, configurations), which can only be comprehended by overcoming unilateral and dichotomous approaches of the institutional mainstream