Yoram Barzel and the Economics of Institutions

Lueck’s survey of what Yoram Barzel contributed to institutional economics. Barzel built a property-rights and transaction-cost approach and then ran it over an unlikely spread of subjects — car racing, slavery, Jewish lending, voting rules in condominium associations — to develop ideas about racing to claim assets, multitasking, rationing by waiting, divided ownership of complex assets, measurement costs, and the economic origins of democracy. The through-line Lueck draws is that measurement cost is what makes institutions necessary.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the Institutions, Property Rights, and the Law section as the way into an economist whose work is scattered across cases rather than collected in one treatise — a guided entry point rather than a primary text.

Where I saw it: On Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Institutions, Property Rights, and the Law, saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription lives on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Institutions — the subject of Barzel’s programme.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.