Geoffrey Martin Hodgson (born 28 July 1946,

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

) is Emeritus Professor in Management at the London campus of

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

, and also an editor of the ''Journal of Institutional Economics.'' Hodgson is recognised as one of the leading figures of modern critical

institutionalism Institutionalism may refer to: * Institutional theory, an approach to the study of politics that focuses on formal institutions of government * New institutionalism, a social theory that focuses on developing a sociological view of institutions, the ...

which carries forth the critical spirit and intellectual tradition of the founders of institutional economics, particularly that of

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism. In his best-known book ...

. His broad research interests span from

evolutionary economics Evolutionary economics is a school of economic thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology. Although not defined by a strict set of principles and uniting various approaches, it treats economic development as a process rather than an equil ...

and

history of economic thought The history of economic thought is the study of the philosophies of the different thinkers and theories in the subjects that later became political economy and economics, from the ancient world to the present day. This field encompasses many d ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

and theoretical

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

. He first became known for his book ''Economics and Institutions: A Manifesto for a Modern Institutional Economics'' (1988), which criticises modern 'mainstream' economics and calls to revise economic theory on the new grounds of institutionalism. His reputation has become enhanced owing to the trilogy of more recent books – ''Economics and Utopia'' (1999), ''How Economics Forgot History'' (2001) and ''The Evolution of Institutional Economics'' (2004) all of which built Hodgson's arguments into a more rounded and powerful critique of mainstream economic theory. In 1988, Hodgson was involved in setting up the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE). He was its general secretary until 1998. In 2000 Hodgson co-founded The Other Canon, a center and network for

heterodox economics Heterodox economics is a broad, relative term referring to schools of economic thought which are not commonly perceived as belonging to mainstream economics. There is no absolute definition of what constitutes heterodox economic thought, as it i ...

research, with main founder and executive chairman Erik Reinert and others. In 2013, Hodgson co-founded the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR). In his 2015 book "Conceptualizing Capitalism" and an article entitled "Legal Institutionalism",Deakin, Simon and Gindis, David and Hodgson, Geoffrey M. and Kainan, Huang and Pistor, Katharina, Legal Institutionalism: ''Capitalism and the Constitutive Role of Law'' (April 30, 2015). Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2017; University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 26/2015 . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2601035 or https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2601035 he sketched his own research program of a

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

institutionalism.

Institutions according to Hodgson

According to Hodgson, institutions are the stuff of social life. He defines them in a 2006 article by saying that institutions are "the systems of established and prevalent social rules that structure social interaction". Examples of institutions may be language, money, law, systems of weights and measures,

table manners Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating and drinking together, which may also include the use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how st ...

and organisations (for example firms). Conventions, that may be included in law, can be regarded to be institutions as well (Hodgson, 2006, p. 2). What Hodgson considers important about institutions is the way that they structure social life and frame our perceptions and preferences. They also create stable expectations. He argues that: "Generally, institutions enable ordered thought, expectation, and action by imposing form and consistency on human activities". Consequently, institutions enable as well as constrain action. Hodgson regards institutions as systems of rules. Broadly understood a rule is "a socially transmitted and customary normative injunction or immanently normative disposition, that in circumstances X do Y" (Hodgson, 2006, p. 3). This means that to be effective a rule has to be embedded in dispositions or habits. Mere decrees are not necessarily rules in this sense. Habits and customs help to give a normative status to a legal rule that can help a new law to become effective. In the process of social interaction norms are constantly changed (Hodgson, 2006, pp. 3–4)

Political Activity

As described in his autobiography ''From Marx to Markets'', Hodgson was active in left politics from 1965 to about 1985. In 1979, Hodgson stood for the Labour Party in

Manchester Withington Manchester Withington is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jeff Smith (British politician), Jeff ...

Books

* ''From Marx to Markets: An Intellectual Odyssey'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025) * ''The Wealth of a Nation: Institutional Foundations of English Capitalism'' (Princeton University Press, 2023) * ''Liberal Solidarity: The Political Economy of Social Democratic Liberalism'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021) * ''Is Socialism Feasible? Towards an Alternative Future'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). * ''Is There a Future for Heterodox Economics? Institutions, Ideology and a Scientific Community'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). * ''Evolutionary Economics: Its Nature and Future'' (Cambridge University Press, 2019). * ''Wrong Turnings: How the Left Got Lost'' (University of Chicago Press, 2018). * ''Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future'' (University of Chicago Press, 2015) * ''From Pleasure Machines to Moral Communities: An Evolutionary Economics without Homo Economicus'' (University of Chicago Press, 2013) * (Edited with Charles Camic) ''Essential Writings of Thorstein Veblen'' (Routledge, London and New York, 2011). * (With Thorbjoern Knudsen) ''Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution'' (University of Chicago Press, 2010). . * ''Economics in the Shadows of Darwin and Marx'' (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2006). . . * ''The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism'' (Routledge, London, 2004). * ''A Modern Reader in Evolutionary and Institutional Economics'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham and Northampton, 2002) * ''How Economics Forgot History: The Problem of Historical Specificity in Social Science'' (Routledge, London, 2001). . Also in a Chinese edition. * ''Evolution and Institutions: On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham and Northampton, 1999) * ''Economics and Utopia: Why the Learning Economy is Not the End of History'' (Routledge, London, 1999) * ''Economics and Evolution: Bringing Life Back Into Economics'' (University of Michigan Press and Polity Press, 1993). * ''Economics and Institutions: A Manifesto for a Modern Institutional Economics'' (Polity Press, Cambridge, and University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1988). * ''After Marx and Sraffa: Essays in Political Economy'' (Macmillan Press, London, 1991). * ''The Democratic Economy: A New Look at Planning, Markets and Power'' (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1984). * ''Capitalism, Value and Exploitation'' (Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1982). * ''Labour at the Crossroads'' (Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1981). * ''Socialism and Parliamentary Democracy'' (Spokesman, Nottingham, 1977. Also in Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Japanese editions) *
Trotsky and Fatalistic Marxism
' (Spokesman, Nottingham. 1975). .

References

* Hodgson, G.M., ‘What are institutions?’, ''Journal of Economic Issues'' 2006 vol. 40 no.1, p. 2–4 (on the internet

External links

Geoffrey Hodgson's homepage

Journal of Institutional Economics

World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR)

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgson, Geoffrey Academics of the University of Hertfordshire English economists People from Watford 1946 births Living people People educated at Cheshunt School Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates