John Joseph Wallis — Structure and change in economic history: The ideas of Douglass North

Douglass North passed away at age 95.

Douglass C. North was among the most important and influential economic historians and economists of the late 20th century. This column highlights four of his major contributions: his pioneering work in quantitative economic history, or ‘cliometrics’; his similarly fundamental work using neoclassical economics to understand institutions; his critique of theory for explaining long-term economic and institutional change; and the distinction he drew between institutions and organisations.

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Structure and change in economic history: The ideas of Douglass North

John Joseph Wallis | Professor of Economics, University of Maryland

Douglass North, economic historian and co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, passed away this week. This column pays tribute to one of the great social scientific pioneers of the modern era – focusing on one particular example of how North drew on historical, empirical and theoretical evidence to understand the interactions between institutions and economic change.

Douglass North, an economist’s historian

Kevin Bryan
Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto Rotman School of Management