Greif and Hayek on Institutions

11 August 2006 at 9:27 am Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

The EH.Net review of Avner Greif’s new book provoked this testy exchange on a history of of economic thought mailing list:

Professor A: This doesn’t sound very profound or “pathbreaking,” just mathed-up Hayek with a soupçon of history.

Professor B: Avner Grief’s work is not “mathed-up” Hayek. His use of game theory allows him, inter alia, to examine the multiple equilibria in “spontaneous orders,” if you like, something to which Hayek paid very little attention.

Professor C: Quote from Greif: “Yet this private order was not, as advocates such as Friedrich A. von Hayek and Milton Friedman would have us believe, a result of ‘spontaneous order’ among economic agents. Rather, it was a product of intentional and coordinated efforts by many individuals […].” Greif (2006: 389)

I agree with Professor B. that Greif does more than simply put a modern gloss on Hayek’s (actually Menger’s) pioneering studies of institutions. But Greif misunderstands Hayek by reading “spontaneous” as “not planned or intended by anybody.” Hayek’s concept of spontaneous order obviously allows for individual purpose and intent, even if individuals’ actions help establish an order that was itself undesigned. (Hayek’s emphasis on rule-following behavior or instinct — OK, to be fair, behavior “between instinct and reason” — perhaps lends itself to Greif’s misunderstanding, however.)

For more on this see Dan Klein’s “The Two Coordinations.”