Avinash Dixit

Avinash Dixit, the John J. F. Sherrerd '52 University Professor of Economics at Princeton University, will study alternative, non-state modes of economic governance. Much of economic theory assumes that an official legal system provides requisite governance for all economic transactions. Dixit will argue, however, that formal governance is a rarity, approximated only in a few advanced countries and only in recent times. In most countries and at most times, formal governance has been lacking, corrupt, or too slow to be effective. Nonetheless, economic life has continued to thrive, and societies have developed alternative modes of governance based on norms and codes of behavior among firms and workers and through enforcement mechanisms such as arbitration. Dixit will examine such alternative models, including how self-governance in less developed countries is gradually replaced by the official rule of law as economies grow.