Institutions and the Significance of Relative Prices
Douglass North's recent work traverses much of the gulf that separates so-called old institutional economics (OIE) and new institutional economics (NIE). To elaborate this assertion, I focus on the particular issue of the significance of relative prices. To do so, I will briefly review the OIE case against the prevalent presumption that price equals value. Thereafter, I will consider aspects of North's work that seem to have a bearing on the issue of the significance of relative prices and by extension on the question of the relation of OIE and NIE.