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Download fileHow mythical markets mislead analysis: an institutionalist critique of market universalism
journal contribution
posted on 2019-02-19, 14:40 authored by Geoff HodgsonMarket universalism refers to the non-metaphorical tendency to use the term market
to describe a wide variety of arrangements or processes in the real world. Using institutional criteria, this paper establishes some minimal necessary features of a market, to show that some particular arrangements are not markets. For example, while
mechanisms of competition and interaction are ubiquitous, ordinary conversation is
not literally a ‘market for ideas’ and much of politics is not literally a ‘political market’. Markets are not and cannot be universal. Yet market universalism overlooks
missing markets, the theory of which implies that we are in a world of second-best
solutions and that markets are not necessarily the answer to every economic problem. Also, by reducing politics to a form of ‘market’ economics, market universalism
downplays the distinctive, non-market nature of the political and legal spheres and
corrodes the conceptual separation of civil society from the state.
History
School
- Loughborough University London
Published in
Socio-Economic ReviewVolume
18Issue
4Pages
1153–1174Citation
HODGSON, G.M., 2019. How mythical markets mislead analysis: an institutionalist critique of market universalism. Socio-Economic Review, 18(4), pp. 1153–1174.Publisher
© The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Socio-Economic Review following peer review. The version of record HODGSON, G.M., 2019. How mythical markets mislead analysis: an institutionalist critique of market universalism. Socio-Economic Review, In Press is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy049Acceptance date
2018-12-10Publication date
2019-01-09Copyright date
2020ISSN
1475-1461eISSN
1475-147XPublisher version
Language
- en