Williamson’s “Economics of Institutions” Syllabus
16 October 2009 at 2:33 pm Peter G. Klein 3 comments
| Peter Klein |
I was pretty clueless when I started graduate school. I had good undergraduate training in economics, and had the privilege of attending my first Austrian seminar, where I met Murray Rothbard, Hans Hoppe, Roger Garrison, and David Gordon, before beginning graduate work. But I really didn’t know exactly what I wanted to study. Like most economics PhD students, I wasn’t exactly turned on by the core theory and econometrics classes. Then I took Williamson’s course ECON 224, “Economics of Institutions,” and it was a revelation. The syllabus dazzled me, with readings from Coase, Simon, Hayek, North, Arrow, Chandler, Alchian, Demsetz, Ben Klein, and many other brilliant and thoughtful economists, along with sociologists, political scientists, historians, and others. I decided then that institutions and organizations would be my area, and I’ve never looked back.
Since Monday I’ve been digging through my files trying to find a copy of that syllabus. I found my folder for that course, containing notes, readings, and exams (no, you can’t see my test scores), but for some reason the syllabus has disappeared. I must have taken it out to study, perhaps when designing my own course in institutions and organizations, and it didn’t make its way back into the file. But I did find an older copy, the Fall 1988 edition. That was, I believe, Williamson’s first year at Berkeley, after arriving from Yale (where he didn’t teach PhD courses, his main appointment being in the law school). I took the course in 1989, but the syllabi are very similar. So here it is. Note the range of authors, journals, subject areas. Not at all like the typical economics PhD course!
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Law and Economics, Management Theory, New Institutional Economics, Strategic Management, Syllabus Exchange, Teaching, Theory of the Firm.
1.
Dick Langlois | 16 October 2009 at 2:54 pm
I don’t remember where I got it, but I have a copy of the syllabus for that course from 1994. There are many more readings than in 1988 — including the now-famous Klein and Shelanski paper.
2.
DRDR | 16 October 2009 at 6:23 pm
Would you not agree that the Baker/Gibbons syllabus is pretty good too? http://web.mit.edu/rgibbons/www/Readings%20in%20Org%20Econ_8_09.pdf
3.
Peter Klein | 16 October 2009 at 7:29 pm
I certainly would agree! I assign Bob’s excellent 2005 JEBO article in my own class.