Social Norms – Determinants, Incompatibilities, and Effects

Abstract

Institutional Economics can be considered a huge success story as today, almost nobody would dispute its main claim that “institutions matter”. Yet, for a long time, social norms and other informal institutions played a minor role at best in this success story. In my talk, I will therefore focus on social norms and discuss why they could be so important for societal development, on the necessary compatibility between formal and informal institutions and on why so many informal institutions seem to eschew attempts at deliberate change. Some of these insights have direct policy implications.

Discussants:

• Davide Gritti, PhD student in Sociology and Social Research
• Nadia von Jacobi, Assistant professor, Department of Economics and Management