Institutional Economics and the Theory of Social Value: Essays in Honor of Marc R. Tool

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Marc R. Tool’s Contributions to Institutional Economics

   • Paul D. Bush

   Pages 1-28

3. From Natural Value to Social Value

   • Charles M. A. Clark

   Pages 29-42

4. Institutionalism and Value Theory: An Identity Crisis?

   • Gladys Parker Foster

   Pages 43-57

5. The Urgency of Social Value Theory in Postmodern Capitalism

   • Doug Brown

   Pages 59-73

6. Pragmatism as a Normative Theory of Social Value and Economic Ethics

   • Lewis E. Hill, Roger M. Troub

   Pages 75-84

7. Efficiency Versus Equity: A False Dichotomy?

   • Glen Atkinson

   Pages 85-95

8. The Instrumental Value Principle and its Role

   • Warren J. Samuels

   Pages 97-112

9. The Instrumental Efficiency of Social Value Theory

   • Edythe S. Miller

   Pages 113-127

10. Instrumental Valuation in a Democratic Society

    • Philip A. Klein

    Pages 129-151

11. Compulsive Shift or Cultural Blind Drift? Literary Theory, Critical Rhetoric, Feminist Theory and Institutional Economics

    • William Waller

    Pages 153-178

12. Structural Change and the Compulsive Shift to Institutional Analysis

    • Charles J. Whalen

    Pages 179-194

13. Beyond Technology to Democracy: The Tool Legacy in Instrumentalism

    • William M. Dugger

    Pages 195-207

14. Marc Tool’s Social Value Theory and the Family

    • Jacqueline B. Stanfield, J. R. Stanfield

    Pages 209-219

15. Market Failure and Regulatory Reform: Energy and Telecommunication Networks as a Case Study

    • Harry M. Trebing

    Pages 221-240

16. Thorstein Veblen: Science, Revolution and the Persistence of Atavistic Continuities

    • Rick Tilman

    Pages 241-248

17. Back Matter

    Pages 249-281

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Marc R. Tool, both through his writings and his editorship of the Journal of Economic Issues, has had a profound influence on institutional economics. Tool's efforts, in his own words, "has been to keep values on the agenda of economic inquiry," which is another way of saying "keep economic inquiry relevant. " Tool's work on the theory of social value and instrumental valuation has helped to keep institutional economics focused on the core economic and social issues facing society, providing both a perspective from which to analyze the economy and a criteria for evaluating outcomes. This collection of essays is a testament to this legacy. Although these 15 chapters cover a wide and diverse range of topics, it is the common themes which are most striking: the inescapable necessity of values in economic discourse; the central role of valuation in economic activity; and most importantly, the requirement of democratic participation to achieve "efficient" solutions to the economic problem. These essays are offered to honor a body of work, a set of ideas, but mostly a man who, by directing economic inquiry to these core issues, has promoted "the continuity of human life and the noninvidious recreation of community through the instrumental use of knowledge.

• crisis
• economics
• efficiency
• institutional economics

• St. John’s University, Jamaica, USA

  Charles Michael Andres Clark

Policies and ethics