The Manufacturing of Markets: Legal, Political and Economic Dynamics

Different types of markets exist throughout the world but how are they created? In this book, an interdisciplinary team of authors provide an evolutionary vision of how markets are designed and shaped. Drawing on a series of case studies, they show that markets are far from perfect and natural mechanisms, and propose a new view of markets as social construct, explaining how combinations of economic, political and legal constraints influence the formation and performance of markets. Historical trajectories and interdependencies among institutional dimensions make it difficult to build costless, non-biased co-ordination mechanisms, and there are limitations to public and private attempts to improve the design of markets. The authors show that incomplete and imperfect modes of governance must be improved upon and combined in order for markets to work more efficiently. This timely book will interest practitioners and academics with backgrounds in economics, law, political science and public policy.

Eric Brousseau is Professor of Economics and Management at Paris-Dauphine University. He is a member of Dauphine Research in Management (DRM), a Joint Research Center between the CNRS and Paris-Dauphine. He is also the founder and director of the European School for New-Institutional Economics (ESNIE), and President of the International Society for New-Institutional Economics (ISNIE). His research focuses on the economics of governance, with applications to innovation, digital economics, the environment, development, and global governance.

Jean-Michel Glachant is Director of the Florence School of Regulation and holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair at the European University Institute in Florence. He has been coordinator or scientific adviser for several European research projects such as THINK, Optimate, SESSA, CESSA, Reliance, EU-DEEP, RefGov, TradeWind and Secure. He is chief editor of EEEP: Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy, the new academic journal of the International Association for Energy Economics, and is a member of the board of IAEE.