New Institutional Economics: A Primer for the Working Economist

New Institutional Economics: A Primer on the Rules of the Game makes one of modern economics' most important schools of thought genuinely accessible. Drawing on the foundational work of Ronald Coase, Douglass North, and Oliver Williamson, Dr. John M. Cobin explains why institutions-property rights, contracts, transaction costs, governance structures, and the rules that shape human cooperation-matter as much as prices and incentives. Written for practitioners, students, and curious professionals rather than specialists, this primer translates the field's core ideas into plain language, concrete examples, and tools readers can actually apply. Cobin, a public policy economist (Ph.D., George Mason University, 1996), public-policy consultant, and author of twenty books, brings decades of teaching in the United States and Chile to bear on the subject. Clear, credible, and refreshingly free of jargon, this is the working economist's guide to understanding how the rules of the game determine economic outcomes.