Continuing his groundbreaking analysis of economic structures, Douglass North develops an analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies, both at a given time and over time. Institutions exist, he argues, due to the uncertainties involved in human interaction; they are the constraints devised to structure that interaction. Yet, institutions vary widely in their consequences for economic performance; some economies develop institutions that produce growth and development, while others develop institutions that produce stagnation. North first explores the nature of institutions and explains the role of transaction and production costs in their development. The second part of the book deals with institutional change. Institutions create the incentive structure in an economy, and organisations will be created to take advantage of the opportunities provided within a given institutional framework. North argues that the kinds of skills and knowledge fostered by the structure of an economy will shape the direction of change and gradually alter the institutional framework. He then explains how institutional development may lead to a path-dependent pattern of development. In the final part of the book, North explains the implications of this analysis for economic theory and economic history. He indicates how institutional analysis must be incorporated into neo-classical theory and explores the potential for the construction of a dynamic theory of long-term economic change.

In this bold, sweeping study of the development of Western economies, Douglass C. North sets forth a new view of societal change.
At the core of Professor North's investigation is the question of property rights, the arrangements individuals and groups have made through history to deal with the fundamental economic problem of scarce resources.
In six theoretical chapters, Professor North examines the structure of economic systems, outlines an economic theory of the state and the ideologies that undergird various modes of economic organization, and then explores the dynamic forces such as new technologies that cause institutions to adapt in order to survive. With this analytical framework in place, major phases in Western history come under careful reappraisal, from the origins of agriculture and the neolithic revolution through the political economy of the ancient and medieval worlds to the industrial revolution and the economic transformations of the twentieth century.
Structure and Change in Economic History is a work that will reshape many established explanations of the growth of the west.

本书“ 除了关于经济学研究方法的一篇文章之外，收入本文集的论文，全部是基于中国改革的实际经验，研究中央计划经济制度——公有制产权结构——的改革与变迁。”计划公有制从法权上铲除了私产，而现存的以及未来的既得利益更反对将“公有的资产”做清楚的、与个人联系在一起的界定，周其仁先生的论证说明——中国建立真正的市场经济还有漫漫长路要走——说到底，这里讨论的是一个私有化在既有社会主义市场经济体制下的可行性问题。