Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis is a monumental achievement offering an ambitious attempt to develop a unified theory of institutions, of the mechanisms of their reproduction over time and of the drivers of their change. The enterprise broadly belongs to the "neoinstitutionalist" perspective in that it searches for microformulations of the very existence and self-reproduction of institutions grounded on the interests and behaviors of self-seeking agents. However, it takes on board insights from diverse perspectives, including "stronger" forms of institutionalism from sociology and political science as well as anthropology.

Govianni Dosi
Professor, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy

"This book has an outstanding intellectual sweep, covering game theory and abstract economics, on the one hand, and a wide diversity of anthropological examples and illustrations from the real world, on the other."

Kaushik Basu
Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor, Cornell University

"In this book Professor Aoki does a remarkable job of animating recent developments in the theory of contracts and institutions. This theory is used to explain the form and structure of diverse institutions, ranging from the regulation of irrigation systems in Tokugawa, Japan, to the rise of Silicon Valley. This book is an astounding achievement that is sure to become a classic."

W. Bentley MacLeod
Professor of Economics and Law, University of Southern California

"If the new institutional economics is to realize its promise, it must go beyond the description, insights, and hypotheses so far developed and turn them into a systematic theoretical framework. Masahiko Aoki's Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis takes us a long way in doing just that."

Douglass C. North
Department of Economics, University of Washington, St. Louis