| Abstract: | How and why do economies grow? This paper surveys recent research into preclassical economies, with particular emphasis on the mercantile period as to the adequacy of an answer of this critical question. Historical, 'ideational' and neoinstitutionalist approaches are analyzed as independent explanations for institutional change. While all of these approaches are found to have value, this survey argues that an unabashedly modern version of Marshallian economics has the greatest explanatory power. |
