The connections between the Austrian tradition and some of the recent developments relating to the economic analysis of institutions.

Abstract

This paper has two aims. First, it studies the way the Austrian theory of institutions evolved from the main works of Menger. Second, and most significantly, it tries to justify the idea that the economic analysis of institutions was inspired more or less explicitly by Menger’s thesis but more generally by the Austrian intuitions and thesis. These intuitions and theses are however amended in order to make them more formalized as well as testable.Menger; Austrian tradition; emergence of the institutions; economic analysis of institutions.