On Custom in the Economy

Ekkehart Schlicht, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998

This book seeks to reintroduce the notion of custom
in economics by providing a link between market processes and  customary elements, which have been neglected by economists.

 Publisher's page, including a sample: Chapter 1


Available online at Oxford Scholarship Online  and Questia.



Preface to Chinese edition


 

     
   

Cover of original edition,

Oxford: Clarendon Press 1998,

reprinted 2007

 

 

ISBN-10: 0198292244
ISBN-13: 978-0198292241

 

 

    

Cover of edition in Simplified Chinese,

Changchun: Changchun Publishing House 2005


ISBN-10: 780664962X
ISBN-13: 978-7806649626

  
         
   

Cover of paperback edition,

Oxford University Press 2018

 

ISBN-10: 0198823460
ISBN-13: 978-0198823469

      


 

Journal of Economic Literature Book Citation

Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XXXIX (June 2001)

 

    Author(s)

    Schlicht, Ekkehart

    Title

    On custom in the economy

    Publication Information

    Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1998, pp. xi, 330

    Subject Classification

    Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights (D230)

    Keyword(s)

    Transactions

    Annotation

    Proposes a theory of custom for economics that emphasizes the motivational force that arises from the individual's striving for coherence and justification. Depicts custom as comprising habitual, cognitive, and emotional aspects; explains that market transactions rely on customary entitlements and obligations; describes how customs may change smoothly or abruptly in several dimensions; and introduces fuzziness as an important and pervasive feature of custom. Advances the idea of adaptive custom. Relates customary regularities to rule perception and learning and establishes the importance of clarification processes in rule perception and rule formation. Discusses behaviors that flow from "rule preference"--a preference for psychologically meaningful, or clear, rules. Views the motivational force of custom as emerging from a preference for regularity and a desire for coherence that tie cognition, emotion, and action together. Discusses custom and style. Applies the proposed view of custom to the theory of property, the theory of the law, the theory of the firm, and the problem of the division of labor and the conditions under which that division of labor is better organized by the firm or by the market. Addresses the overall pattern of the workings of custom, its pervasiveness, and the way it influences social evolution. Schlicht is Professor of Economics at the University of Munich.

    ISBN

    0-19-829224-4

    Update on EconLit

    200105

Published on this web page by courtesy of the American Economic Association.

This record is part of the EconLit bibliographic database. Copyright © 2001, American Economic Association





Professor Dr. Ekkehart Schlicht: Veröffentlichungen/Publications
 

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