social institutions are shaped by the cumulative impact of many individuals interacting with one another over long periods of time.
the features are determined to a considerable degree byt the accumulation of historical precedents, that is, by the decisions of many individuls who were concerned only with making the best trade at the moment, not with the impact of their decisions on the long-run development of that market.
Eventually one form becomes standard and customary for a given type of transaction, not necessarily because it is optimal, abut because it serves the purpose reasonably well and it is what everyone has come to expect. It is now an institution that coordinates behaviors, and to deviate from it would be costly.
No one willed them into being. They are what they are due to the accumulation of precedent; they emerged from experimentation and historical accident.
Equilibrium can be understood only within a dynamic framework that explains how it comes about.
"Neoclassical economics describes they way the world looks once the dust has settled; we are interested in how the dust goes about settling. The business of settling may have considerable bearing on how things look afterwards.
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