ABSTRACT
The important task of institutionalism is that of working out the mechanics of economic change that operate in capitalistic, as in other economic, societies. Professor Mitchell agrees with Thornstein Veblen that the problem of human welfare is bound up in the relation between business enterprise and industrial efficiency. The method employed to decide the problem has been that of defining the term "economic institution" and on that basis deriving the meaning of institutionalism. The economic interest goes with men through life, and it goes with the race throughout its process of cultural development. Alfred Marshall considered the purpose of economics to be the study of human nature in its wealth-getting and wealth-spending activities, and to show the motives which impel men to act or to refrain from acting in the gratification of their material wants. These motives can be measured by the sums of money that are just sufficient to induce them to undergo certain pains.
