Institutional Mediation of the Economy

This chapter will argue that economic behaviour is about what people value and how they allocate resources through institutional mediation in order to further what they value. Economic behaviour therefore, will be understood as social behaviour, relying on interpersonal relationships in a context of institutions, guided by shared as well as contested values. Such complex human behaviour cannot be captured in formal, linear economic models, simplistic assumptions on motivation, and mathematical conditions, as occurs in mainstream economics.