| REVISTA DE ECONOMÍA
INSTITUCIONAL No. 1, SECOND SEMESTER 1999
Institutional Design and Public
Policy: a Microeconomic Perspective
Kenneth McKenzie [pdf] [html]
[Key Words: institutional design, public policy, information
costs, political markets, bureaucracy; public choice; JEL:
D72, D73, D89]
This survey article provides a microeconomic perspective
of institutional design and public policy, focusing on the
way the relations between voters, politicians and bureaucrats
produce efficients outcomes in public policy. It points
out the relevance of information and monitoring costs, competition
and the structural features of institutions in the search
of efficient results, and the way social scientists explain
the failures of the political and burocratic markets.
The Genealogy of
Liberalism:
an Economic Reading of Locke´s Second Treatise of
Government
Mauricio Pérez Salazar [pdf] [html]
[Key Words: John Locke, political society, individual freedom,
consent, civil government, liberalism; JEL: B19, H89)
This paper presents an interpretation of John Locke’s
theory of political society. After reviewing the differences
between Locke‘s and Hobbes‘ ideas of individual,
government and the importance of a rational discussion about
the construction of political society, the article shows
the role of individual freedom and consent as basis for
explaining the situation of men in political society. The
analysis of Locke´s social contract shows how the
creation of government is the outcome of the search for
economic efficiency, because it permits the reduction of
transaction costs or what Locke calls “the inconveniences
of the state of nature”.
Monopolistic Rents in the
Price System
Homero Cuevas [pdf] [html]
[Key Words: monopolistic rents, imperfect competition,
price system, general equilibrium; JEL: D42, D59, D72, D89)
This paper seeks to point out and to correct some mistakes
of the conventional theory of imperfect competition based
on partial equilibrium analysis. It extends to imperfect
competition the classical model of general equilibrium,
signaling the interconnections between individual prices
and between these and macroeconomic aggregates.
Institutional Economics
and Economic Science
Jaime Lozano [pdf] [html]
[Key Words: institutional economics, Walrasian economics,
economic order; JEL: B52, B53, B59, B49]
This article presents a comparative analysis of the approaches
of institutional economics and Walrasian economics. After
reviewing the differences between both perspectives, it
argues that institutional economics is an alternative, however
incomplete, to general equilibrium economics. It compares
the way both tendencies conceive the individual, knowledge,
efficiency and the economic order, to point out the differences.
Some methodological discussion derived from these differences
is indicated.
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