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Economics and Politics: How the Rules of the Game Are Changing

Categoria/Category
Anno XXXI, n. 133, gennaio-febbraio 1996
Editore/Publisher
Centro Einaudi

Abstract

Testo disponibile solo in lingua inglese.
The thesis of this essay is that the huge increases in productivity as a result of technological development over the last 150 years have been made possible only thanks to fundamental changes in institutional and organisational structure (supply side); and that the tensions provoked by these social upheavals have triggered (and continue to do so) fundamental changes in the institutional structure induced by politics to attenuate the tensions themselves (demand side). Institutional changes on the supply and demand sides have been and are fundamental factors vis-à-vis the variation in productivity. In the different sections of the essay, the author specifies what institutions are and how they are changing. He describes the cause underlying increased productivity in the modern era: namely, the second economic revolution with its accompanying institutional and organisational imperatives. He also examines some of the institutional changes – both on the demand side and on the supply side – which have influenced and influence the dynamics of productivity. In conclusion, he attempts to outline the institutional dynamics of modern economies and consequences for the increase in productivity.