Mantzavinos, North and Shariq: Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance

Mantzavinos, C, DC North, and S Shariq. 2004. Learning, institutions, and economic performance. Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 01: 75-84.

"In this article, we provide a broad overview of the interplay among cognition, belief systems, and institutions, and how they affect economic performance. We argue that a deeper understanding of institutions' emergence, their working properties, and their effect on economic and political outcomes should begin from an analysis of cognitive processes. We explore the nature of individual and collective learning, stressing that the issue is not whether agents are perfectly or bounded rationally, but rather how human beings actually reason and choose, individually and in collective settings. We then tie the processes of learning to institutional analysis, providing arguments in favor of what can be characterized as 'cognitive institutionalism'" (from abstract).