Introduction
pp. 1-9
in: Agnes Labrousse, Jean-Daniel Weisz (eds), Institutional economics in France and Germany, Berlin, Springer, 2001Abstract
This book originates in a conference held in Berlin in 1998 the theme of which was a comparison of the German Ordoliberal school with the French Regulation school. The primary practical aim of the conference was to create an opportunity for researchers knowing almost nothing from each other to meet and exchange ideas. The distinctive characteristic of these two approaches is their initial grounding in their respective national contexts. Their origins played an important role in the trajectories they subsequently followed. This feature is abundantly illustrated throughout the book. However, the scope of these approaches to institutional economics is in no way restricted to their national contexts. And yet they remain almost ignored in books and surveys on institutional economics, although many publications and articles on both are available in English, French and German. One is therefore tempted to believe that there must be some kind of an invisible barrier preventing their due recognition to date in the literature on institutional economics, apart from some notable exceptions aside.