"Understanding Economic Institutions: Theory, Methodology, Empirics, Simulations"

In the first two years of its existence, this Hertfordshire workshop has established itself as a major annual international event, devoted to the development of institutional economics. Past participants have included: Victoria Chick (London), Tony Dnes (Hertfordshire), Geoff Harcourt (Cambridge), Geoff Hodgson (Hertfordshire), Tony Lawson (Cambridge), Nathalie Lazaric (Nice), Edward Lorenz (Paris), Bart Nooteboom (Rotterdam), Ugo Pagano (Sienna).

This year, the workshop has been expanded from two to FOUR days.

Participants may choose to attend any part of the workshop. The first two days will consist of lectures and discussions on institutional economics.

In the final two days a number of papers will be presented by leading researchers, as in preceding years.

This year we are pleased to announce Philip Mirowski (University of Notre Dame) as keynote speaker.

Ninety minutes of time for presentation and discussion will be scheduled for each paper. As only six sessions are planned, it is anticipated that the submission process will be highly competitive.

Those wishing to present a paper in one of the final two days of the workshop are invited to send the completed paper (not simply an abstract) to Geoff Hodgson at the address below. Email submissions are also welcome (g.m.hodgson@herts.ac.uk) but these must be sent as an email attachment in MSWord. The organisers accept no responsibility for papers that cannot be downloaded. An organising committee will evaluate all papers and the accepted papers will become part of the conference programme. Preference will be given to papers that are closest to the main theme of the workshop.

This year it is planned to concentrate on theoretical and methodological issues relating to the nature and evolution of institutions. Any simulations should be grounded in this theoretical and methodological literature. We are not interested in mathematical technique or computation for their own sake. Applied and empirical studies are also welcome, but these also should be related to theoretical and methodological issues.

All submissions must be received by 30 April 2001.

Hertford is 30 minutes by train from central London, and close to London Luton, London Stansted and London City airports.

For your information, I append details of the costs and draft programme.

However, there is no need to make payments at this stage.

I hope very much that you will be able to participate in this event.

Geoff Hodgson

Research Professor

Ben's Cottage, University of Hertfordshire Business School, Mangrove Road, Hertford, Herts, SG13 8QF, UK

----------------------------------------------------------- COSTS:

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Attendance on 4th September or part thereof, £20 Attendance on 5th September or part thereof, £60 Attendance on 6th September or part thereof, £80 Attendance on 7th September or part thereof, £60 Attendance for whole workshop, £200

These costs will be substantially reduced for a limited number of people on low incomes.

In addition, authors presenting accepted papers at the workshop and attending at least on the 2 days of 6-7 September are offered a £50 reduction (per presented paper) in their cost of attendance. If this offer is not taken up by 1 June 2001, then the £50 will be used to help more people on low incomes to attend the workshop.

Prices include lunch, tea and coffee where indicated on the programme plus - for those who have paid to attend on that day - the workshop dinner on 6th September. In the event of cancelled attendance, a £20 administration charge will be deducted from any refunds.

----------------------------------------------------------- DRAFT PROGRAMME

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TUESDAY 4th SEPTEMBER 2001

14.30 Registration

15.30 Opening and Welcome

16.00 Lecture 1: Geoff Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire) "The Old and the New Institutional Economics"

18.00 End of session

WEDNESDAY 5th SEPTEMBER 2001

09.00 Lecture 2: Geoff Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire) "Structures and Institutions: Institutional Economics and Social Theory"

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Lecture 3: Geoff Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire) "The Problem of Historical Specificity"

13.30 Lunch

14.30 Lecture 4: Tony Lawson (University of Cambridge) "Economics as Social Theory"

16.30 Tea

17.00 Discussion of the issues raised in the lectures.

18.30 End of session

THURSDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 2001

09.30 PAPER 1

11.00 Coffee

11.30 PAPER 2

13.00 Lunch

14.30 PAPER 3

16.00 Tea

16.30 Keynote Speaker: Philip Mirowski (University of Notre Dame) "The Evolution of Market Automata and Some Implications for Financial Markets"

18.00 End of session

19.30 Workshop Dinner

FRIDAY 7th SEPTEMBER 2001

09.30 PAPER 4

11.00 Coffee

11.30 PAPER 5

13.00 Lunch

14.30 PAPER 6

16.00 End of workshop.

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Geoff Hodgson

Research Professor

University of Hertfordshire

http://www.herts.ac.uk/business/esst/Staff/g-hodgson/hodgson.html