12.11.2024 Gaidar Institute Press Discussed Danila Raskov’s Book “The Retoric of Institutionalism”

Economics and knowledge about it - economic theory as well as institutional economics - exist in the context of rhetoric or persuasion. Economists engage in conversation and persuasion through ethos, commonplaces, authority, metaphors, and other tropes. Not so much facts and logic, but stories and narratives, expressed through both verbal constructs and mathematical and econometric models or empirics, constitute a critical component of this conversation.

The book aims to provide a comprehensive presentation of the rhetoric of institutional economic theory. The general approach continues the line sketched out by McCloskey* and Klamer*. The focus is on the rhetorical strategies of both old and new institutionalism. The book shows how, using the trope of irony, Veblen** explains the evolution of the economy through institutions, while the new institutionalists activate the legal (Coase*), managerial (Williamson*), and synthetic (North*) approaches in the economic theory of institutions.

The decision to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics for research on how “social institutions shape and influence well-being” gives additional relevance to the discussion of the book. The authors (D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson, J. Robinson) were able to convince two audiences: with the help of econometric models and analysis of large databases - professional economists, and with the help of narratives about the impact of inclusive and extractive institutions and clear examples from post-colonial history – a very wide audience. The Nobel Committee said, “This year's laureates have found new insights into why the world's countries vary significantly in wealth. One of the most important explanations is very different social institutions.”

The event continued the round of meetings “New Economic Thinking”.

The panel discussion was in mixed format: online and offline.

The panel participants:

Moderator of the meeting – Dr. Vladimir Avtonomov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

- Svetlana Kirdina-Chandler, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Doctor of Sociological Sciences

- Yuri Latov, Doctor of Sociological Sciences

- Irina Chaplygina, Candidate of Economic Sciences

- Andrey Shastitko, Doctor of Economic Sciences

Online participants:

- Danila Raskov, Candidate of Economic Sciences, compiler of the New Economic Thinking series, the author of the book

- Vyacheslav Volchik, Doctor of Economic Sciences

- Denis Kadochnikov, Candidate of Economic Sciences

- Maxim Markov, Candidate of Economic Sciences

- Andrei Yakovlev, Doctor of Economic Sciences

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* Deirdre McCloskey, Aryo Klamer, Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Douglass North are outstanding contemporary economists. Coase, Williamson and North are Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Economics of various years. Books of nearly all of them were published by Gaidar Institute Press.

** Thorstein Bund Veblen (1857–1929) – American economist, sociologist, columnist and futurologist. He was the founder of the institutional trend in political economy.