TOWARD A RECONCILIATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS AND ITS CRITICS.

The article presents a discussion on the paper titled "Institutionalism and Economic Development," written by Clarence E. Ayres. It is a clear and more or less complete statement of the position taken and emphasis given by a distinguished and influential scholar. The author does not attempt here a detailed appraisal of this article. Once a critic of institutional economics, Benjamin Higgins notes in his introduction that Professor Ayres and his fellows, it is now clear, have long been doing the sort of thing all development economists now find it necessary to do. Perhaps equally important is the observation that Ayres has, in the article which follows, provided the basis for a "reconciliation" of his position with that of his "hostile" critics. Specifically, the author agrees that Professor Ayres' position or approach is economic, a theory of what the economy is and how it works. That is, technically, the job of an economist is to explain, describe, and predict the workings of economic systems and, therefore, Ayres is a practicing economist.