The hidden persuaders: institutions and individuals in economic theory

Abstract

In his classic book The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard claimed that large corporations manipulated consumers, using advertising techniques. John Kenneth Galbraith and others have repeated a similar view. Against this, Gary Becker and George Stigler have claimed that advertising is essentially informative rather than manipulative. In contrast, it is argued here that both of these opposed accounts of human agency neglect the more subtle and undesigned processes by which institutions bear upon and mould individuals. This paper proposes a concept of 'reconstitutive downward causation' in which institutions act upon individual habits and dispositions. The mechanisms involved do not fall foul of past critiques of 'holism' or methodological collectivism. This argument involves a rehabilitation of the concept of habit in social science, with far-reaching implications.

Institutional transition and the financing of high-tech SMEs in China: A longitudinal perspective

“…required by finance suppliers such as banks to act as collateral to secure funding. Informal institutional arrangements are typically unwritten codes of conduct (North, 1990, Hodgson, 2003, in this paper, incorporating personal knowledge of either owners or their family, knowledge of investee businesses, personal reputations of owners, and interpersonal trust used to judge the risk of loan and equity application.…”

Corruption and the effects of economic freedom

“…Because some specific effects strictly depend on the structure and efficiency of the market, it would be wrong to see corruption as consequences of excessive regulation or to imagine that complete laissez-faire will always be the answer (Bliss and Di Tella, 1997). The perspective that government regulation hampers productive effort, encourages rent seeking and increases the discretionary power of a few public officers still reigns throughout government institutions and scholars (Graeff and Mehlkop, 2003;Paldam, 2002), though it is argued that when government regulation is weak or almost absent, an increase in market rules is crucial to develop a solid productive sector (Hodgson, 2003) It has been postulated that the ability of the formal financial system to provide 21 financing to the private sector (f agree) reduces the corruption effects (AREA III).…”

The Adoption of E-Business by Organizations in China: An Institutional Perspective

“…Various components of institutions, despite their connotation of persistence (Parto 2005), durability (Hodgson 2003), and stability (Scott 2001: 48), are subject to change in evolutionary time (Parto 2005). Zucker (1988: 26) draws an analogy from physics to describe institutional change mechanisms.…”