An Exploration of the Structural Characteristics of a Veblen-Ayres-Foster Defined Institutional Domain

Most institutional economists writing in the intellectual tradition of Thorstein Veblen, Clarence Ayres, and J. Fagg Foster have been preoccupied with the broad philosophical sweep of the institutionalist paradigm. Accordingly, they have most often produced research and analysis consistent with the methodology of "pattern" theory rather than the hypothetico-deductive methodology characteristic of orthodox economic analysis. There can be no question that the "pattern" theories of the institutionalist school are, to date, its most valuable contribution to the literature of economics.' With the exception of the Marxians, no other school of economic thought aspires to the philosophical breadth and depth of institutionalist work in political economy, or even approaches it. In addition to its strength in the development of "pattern" theories, institutionalist thought possesses a potential for generating deductively