1 - Introduction: why institutions matter 1.1 - Why do institutions matter? 1.2 - The record of economic growth 1.3 - Explaining economic growth Part I - Foundations 2 - Definitions: economics, institutions, order and policy 2.1 - Basic definitions 2.2 - The precursors of contemporary institutional economics 3 - Human behaviour 3.1 - The knowledge problem 3.2 - Types of behaviour, cognition and bounded reationality: deciphering reality 3.3 - Motivation: by love, command or self-interest 3.4 - The principal-agent problem 4 - Fundamental human values 4.1 - Shared, underlying values 4.2 - Freedom, justice and equity 4.3 - Security, peace and prosperity 4.4 - Conservation of the environment 5 - Institutions: individual rules 5.1 - Overview: rules and enforcement 5.2 - Internal institutions 5.3 - External institutuions and protective government 5.4 - The functions on institutions 5.5 - The essential porperties of effective institutions 5.6 - The costs of interaction and coordenation 6 - Institutional systems and social order 6.1 - Social systems and hierarquies of rules 6.2 - Two kinds of social order 6.3 - The perceptions of order influence public policy 6.4 - Rule systems as part of culture 6.5 - Social order and human values: the rule of law Part II - Applications 7 - The institutional foundations of capitalism 7.1 - Capitalism: property rights and private autonomy 7.2 - Essential characteristics of property rights 7.3 - Using property rights: free contracts and transaction costs 7.4 - Relational contracts, self-enforcement and the judiciary 7.5 - The consequences of capitalism 7.6 - Institutions which secure the services of money 8 - The dynamics of competition 8.1 - Competition: rivalry and choice 8.2 - Competition from the suppliers' perspective 8.3 - REstrictions of economic competition 8.4 - The competitive system 9 - Economic organizations 9.1 - Economic organizations: definition and purposes 9.2 - Organizations costs, relational contracts and hold-up risks 9.3 - Ownership and control: the principal agent problem in business 10 - Collective action: public policy 10.1 - Public versus private choice 10.2 - The functions of government 10.3 - A liberal model of public policy: order policy 10.4 - Failures of the welfare state 10.5 - Political action and rent creation 10.6 - Controlling the political agents: authority, rules, openess 10.7 - Political and economic constitutions 11 - The international dimension 11.1 - The growing significance of the international dimension 11.2 - The institutional framework of international exchanges 11.3 - Policy issues: international economic order 11.4 - On strengthering the open economic order 12 - The evolution of institutions 12.1 - Historical reminiscences: the long view on institutional change 12.2 - Internal institutions: evolution within cultural values and meta rules 12.3 - Changing the external institutions: political entrepreneurship 12.4 - Outside challenges: institutional competition 12.5 - Competitive federalism 12.6 - The constitution of freedom as a framework for evolution 13 - Alternative economic systems ans systems transformation 13.1 - The economic performance of alternative systems 13.2 - Socialism in retrospect 13.3 - Transforming socialist economies 14 - Reforming the mixed economies 14.1 - Economic liberties and properity 14.2 - Economic development: the role of institutional change 14.3 - Reforming the mature economies Appendix Bibliography Index