March 27, 2003

CSES hosted a mini-conference on a seminal forthcoming study by Stanford economist Avner Greif, entitled "Economics, Culture, and Institutions." Greif essentially argues that the traditional economic analysis needs to be made broader to encompass social variables, and that this can be done through a combination of historical studies and game theory. The empirical material upon which Greif draws is about merchants in the late Middle Ages.

Commentators for the event came from three social science disciplines: economic history (Stanley Engerman, University of Rochester), economics (Chiaki Moriguchi, Northwestern University), and sociology (Bruce Carruthers, Northwestern University; Michael Macy, Cornell University). Richard Swedberg, Professor of Sociology at Cornell and Associate Director of CSES, gave opening remarks.