Presencia de las instituciones en los enfoques del institucionalismo económico: convergencias y divergencias

There is a renewed interest to study institutions and their incidence in the economy. The analysis of institutions includes a number of approaches, but the most relevant are the ones offered by Thorstein Bunde Veblen, Douglas North, and Oliver Williamson. The aim of this paper is first to discuss the convergences and divergences, which can be identified in the approaches offered by Veblen, North, and Williamson, and, then, to propose a categorization that specifies definitions, methods, and institutional treatment in each of the approaches, in order to help clarify the appellative of “institutionalist” and to better comprehend each of the approaches.