ABSTRACT
By common assent, the most significant visible impact of American institutionalism has been in the field of what is now called development economics. 1 This relatively favorable assessment of the influence of institutionalism in this increasingly important field is in rather considerable contrast to the prevailing impression concerning the impact of institutionalism on economics generally. Paul Samuelson, in his elementary text, dismisses it with the comment that, “although Veblen and the Institutionalists had some followers in American academic life… 40 years ago Institutionalism withered away as an effective counterforce in economics.” 2
