Economic Sociology

Economic Sociology

• Bibliography on Economic Sociology - Albert Benschop (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

• ECONbase
  An interactive and searchable database containing up-to-date information on new and published articles in 64 Elsevier/North-Holland economics journals.

• Economic Beliefs and Behavior (ESRC)
  An economic and social research council research programme. Introduction, background, research findings and list of publications.

• Economic History Server (EHS)
  A mega site on economic history, offering directories, list archives, book reviews, data files, links and abstracts in Economic History. From the EH.Net

• Economic Policy and the Netherlands
  Maintained by: Economic Policy Directorate (AEP) of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ).

• Economic Sociology Section of the ASA
  Home page for economic sociology.
  • Archive for Working Papers in Economic Sociology

  • EconSoc Editorial Series
    • Arjo Klamer [Fall 1997] Aiming High
    • Anne Mayhew [Fall 1997] Diversity and Division of Labor
    • Viviana Zelizer [Winter 1998] Next Steps in Economic Sociology
    • Richard Swedberg [Spring 1998] (Stockholm Univ.) What is happening in economic sociology?
    • Wayne E. Baker (Univ. of Michigan) Bridging the Philosophical Devide Between Sociology and Economics
    • Geoffrey Hodgson: Economic Sociology - Or Econology?
    • Randall Collins (Univ. of Pennsylvania) The Multiple Fronts of Economic Sociology
    • Arthur Stinchcombe: Doing Both Economics and Sociology is Better than Doing Either
    • Warren J. Samuels (Michigan State University) Towards a Political Economic Sociology
    • Nicole Woolsey Biggart[1999] (Univ. of California, Davis) Conventional Wisdom: Efficiency and Social Customs
    • Douglas S. Massey (University of Pennsylvania) Economic Sociology and Immigration
    • Mathew Forstater (University of Missouri-Kansas City) Economics and Sociology: The Contributions of Adolph Lowe
  
  

• Economic Sociology Papers - Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics (Univ. of California, Berkeley, USA). It includes papers of Neil Fligstein.

• Economic Sociology & Organizational Studies - University of Pennsylvania (USA)

• Economic Sociology Workshop - Princeton University, USA.

• Economist, The
  The international weekly journal of news, ideas, opinion and analysis. The online Library lets you browse the two most recent past issues of The Economist each week, plus all of the surveys since March 1997 and a Special Collection of dozens of key articles from past issues. “Infrequently asked questions” is a quiz based on the articles in the Special Collection. The “Style Guide” is an entertaining and free reference-tool for clear writing.

• EconPapers
  EconPapers provides access to the largest collection of online eoconomics working papers and journal articles. The majority of the full text files are freely available, but some require that you subscribe to the service providing the full text file. Editor: Sune Karlsson.

• EconWPA - Economics Working Paper Archive
  One of the largest archives of electronic working papers. Washington University of St Louis.

• Entrepreneuwship Seminar
  A list of links to entrepeneurship web sites edited by Howard E. Aldrich (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.).

• European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE)
  The main purpose is to promote evolutionary, dynamic and realistic approaches to economic theory and policy. Instead of the over-formalistic and often empty theorising of orthodox economics, the aim is to bring together the ideas of a number of theorists and theoretical traditions, and to help to develop a more realistic and adequate approach to theory and policy.

• IDEAS - Internet Documents in Economics Access Service
  Information about working papers to the economic profession. Editor: Christian Zimmerman (Center for Research on Economic Fluctuations and Emploiyment, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada).

• Information Economy, The
  A collection of documents on the economics of the internet, information goods, intellectual property, and related issues, by Hal R. Varian.

• International Survey of Economic Attitudes (ISEA)
  A collaborative international project which conducts tri-annual surveys in half a dozen nations, each bases on large, representative national sampels. The ISEA is an off-shoot of the International Social Survey Programme's long established ‘Ideology of Inequality’ project.

• Journal of Economic (JEL) Literature Classification

• MovingIdeas - Economic Policy
  Robert Reich's old outfit. Includes regular collums from Galbraith, Kuttner, and Robert B. Reich. These pages are part of the the Policy Action Network, a project of The American Prospect magazine.

• NEP - New Economic Papers (UK)
  NEP is an announcement service which filters information on new releases of working papers into edited reports. These reports are generated by subject-specific editors and are circulated via email. The goal of the NEP project and the associated announcement lists is to provide subscribers with up-to-date information on new additions to the research literature.

• NetEc
  An international academic effort to improve the communication of economics via electronic media. It consists of:
  • Printed working papers: BibEc
  • Data about electronic working papers: WoPEc (discontinued at june 1998).
  • WWW resources in economics: WecEc.
    The original WebEc in Finland is mirrored in UK and USA,
  
  

• Political Economy Research Centre - Sheffield University, UK
  A centre of excellence in multi-disciplinary research on the current transformation of industrial societies and of the global economic and political order. Its objectives: contribute to the search for a new intellectual framework and policy approach, capable of addressing the problems of a new era; play an energetic part in international, national and regional policy debates; establish links with commentators, research institutes and think-tanks both in Britain and abroad; establish a dialogue with the local and regional communities, ensuring that their needs and concerns are properly reflected in its research; involve policy-makers & opinion-formers from the public and private sectors in its work.

• Post Keynesian Thought (PKT)
  The archive aims at bringing together the work of economists and others interested in Post Keynesian economics and the social, historical, and political questions that have long been a part of the Post Keynesian tradition. The objective of PKT is to support an electronic community of scholars interested in going beyond conventional neoclassical economic analysis and moving forward in the tradition of Keynes, Kalecki, Robinson, and Sraffa. Colorado, USA.

• Resources for economic historians
  An introduction to Internet resources of interest to economic historians. Editor: Michelangelo Vasta (Italy). English and Italian versions.

• Resources for Economists on the Internet (RFE) - Bill Goffe (Dept. of Economics, SUNY Oswego, USA)
  A guide that lists the many resources on the Internet of interest to academic and practicing economists, and those interested in economics.

• Research in Political Economy
  Editor: Paul Zarembka (Dep. of Economics, State Univ. of New York at Buffalo, USA.).

• Scout Report for Business and Economics
  The report contain research resources, learning tools, general resources, and current awareness, as well as an In the News section highlighting a recent news story and pointing to relevent Internet resources. In addition, each report links to a current awareness meta-page for its topic, a page that contains pointers to sources of new journals, working papers, data, book listings, etc.

• Selected Resources for Economists - Department of Economics, American University.

• Structural Change and Economic Dynamics
  Journal with articles about theoretical, applied and methodological aspects of structural change in economic systems. An important aim is to facilitate communication among research institutes and individual researchers who are actively engaged in the study of structural change.

• Synthesis
  A forum for discussion of new ideas and approaches in the fields of strategic futures (scenario planning), marketing and economic development. The starting point is the relationship between the company, the market and the individual client. The editor, Brian Richardson offers a detailed explanation of synthesis marketing along with annotated lists of links to related sites. It provides full text articles in this area (which can be found through a browsable list).

• Tinbergen Institute
  Research institute and graduate school of economics. he Institute is founded in 1987 and named after Professor Jan Tinbergen, Dutch Nobel Prize laureate in economics in 1969. The Tinbergen Institute is located in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

• Web Economy - CyberCapitalism
  Resources on the economy of the Internet, including network economics, Web business and electronic commerce. (Subject Areas)

Courses in Economic Sociology

• Peter J. Boettke (George Mason University, USA).
  A survey in the developments in the field of economic sociology. Special emphasis will be placed on the analytical puzzles that emerge from the issue of embeddedness at the individual actor, firm, market structure, and political economy levels. All action is within a context, and we will explore the nature in which the institutional context of decision affects individual action and social interaction.

• Mark Granovetter (Stanford University, USA).
  This course reviews changes in how various social science disciplines have explained the economy over the last several hundred years, and then zeroes in on the sociological approach. That approach is sometimes complementary, sometimes supplementary, and sometimes contrary to the explanations offered by standard contemporary economics, depending on the particular subject. The fundamental premise is that a deep understanding of the economy requires attention to how social structure and institutions shape information flow, trust, cooperation, norms, morality, power and domination, in economic action and interaction.

• Douglas Guthrie (New York University, USA)
  Syllabus from undergraduate seminar on Economic Sociology.

Articles & Book

• Aspers, Patrik [2005]
  Sociology of Markets
  In: Jens Beckert / Milan Zafirovski (eds.) [2005] Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology. London: Routledge.

• Aspers, Patrik [2006]
  Economic Sociology or Sociology?
  In: Newsletter of the Economic Sociology section of ASA. Vol. 5 (1).

• Aspers, Patrik / Kohl, Sebastian / Roine, Jesper / Wichardt, Philipp [2008]
  An Economic Sociological Look at Economics
  In: Economic Sociology - the European electronic newsletter, 9(2), March 2008

• Beckert, Jens [January, 2000]
  Economic Action and Embeddedness - The Problem of the Structure of Action
  A contribution to the development of foundations for a sociological theory of economic action. This implies a substantial break with the teleological structure that informs both rational actor theory and normative theories of action. The understanding of action in economic contexts is based on a non-teleological interpretation of intentionality. Such a theoretical conceptualization brings the interpretative acts of intentionally rational actors to the center.

• Benschop, Albert - University of Amsterdam, Netherland
  • [1994-9] Transactiekosten in de economische sociologie
    A Dutch book on Transaction Costs in Economic Sociology. An assesment of Oliver Williamson's contribution to the transaction costs theory.

  • [jan. 2000] Gedragsmatige theorie van de onderneming
    Article on the behavioral theory of the firm.

  • [1995-0] Naar een nieuwe economische sociologie - een transformationeel perspectief
    A book in progress in which a transformational approach to economic sociology will be developed. Dutch only.

• Brown, Thomas Ford - Sociology Department, John Hopkins University, Baltimore (USA)
  • [1997] Consumer Demand and the Social Construction of Industry
    Working Paper Series, Program for Comparative and International Development, Sociology Department, Johns Hopkins University. Brown demonstrates empirically how industrial structuration is embedded in the same social processes that influence consumer tastes and preferences. He shows how tastes and preferences are socially constructed, dynamic, and reciprocally interactive with structural change in industry. He argues that you cannot fully comprehend the social construction of industry in isolation from the social construction of consumer demand, for they are overlapping parts of an encompassing social process.

  • [1997] Ideological Hegemony and Global Governance
    In: Journal of World-Systems Research 3: 250-258.
    Is liberalism really in decline as Wallerstein argued in After Liberalism? In Brown's opinion the free-market ideology is more potent than Wallerstein allows. Laissez-faire libertarian utopianism could prove as seductive to a disillusioned working class as socialist utopianism was during the early 20th century. Libertarian sympathies and ideology are easily exploited by non-believers as a means of extending the status quo.

  • [1998] Theoretical Perspectives on Social Capital
    Working Paper Series, Program for Comparative and International Development, Sociology Department, Johns Hopkins University. Although the notion of “social capital” has been one of the most influential theoretical constructs emerging from the New Economic Sociology, clear definitions of the term are still scarce. Brown propoges to construct a theoretical explication of social capital that: “(1) is not roblem-specific; (2) is not restricted to a particular unit of analysis; (3) is theoretically consistent across levels of analysis; (4) is conceptually distinguished from correlate theories of agency, motivation, and social structuration; (5) can encompass, organize, and articulate those existing conceptualizations of social capital that have already proven viable.” Brown elaborates a conceptualization of social capital at three levels of analysis — micro, meso, and macro — incorporating and integrating the best of existing theory. He also tries to show how the three perspectives constitute the basis of a general theory of social capital, and discuss how the three perspectives work together to inform and provoke empirical inquiry.

• Chattoe, Edmund - Univ. of Surrey, U.K.
  [1995] Can Sociologists and Economists Communicate? - The problem of grounding and the theory of consumer theory
  A paper on the difficulties in using economic and sociological theories of consumer decision-making as the basis for a computational model. He discusses three difficulties. The first one is the a non-operational nature of many of the theories, and so their explanatory power cannot be assessed using dta that can actually be obtained. The second difficulty is that of grounding, of what a given theory rests upon by way of lower level constructs and explanations. This gives rise to the final difficulty, that of recosiling both the aims and methods of economic and sociological theory

• Cross, John
  • [1988] The Informal Sector
    In: Philip O'Hara (ed) [1988] Encyclopedia of Political Economy. Routledge: London & New York.
    A definition and brief overview of the literature and issues involved in research dealing with the informal economy.

  • [1994] States and Informal Economies
    A general attempt to underline some of the issues involved in a political economy of informality from a macro-sociological perspective. Cross promisses us that one of these days he will radically rewrite it and get it published.

  • [1995] Informal Leverage and Informal Subsidies: Strategies for NGO's Working with the Informal Economy
    A comparison of the interest structure of informal with formal economic activity, and of three approaches by which informal economic actors have mobilized. Published in Sustainable Development in Egypt: Current and Emerging Challenges. Proceedings of the Third Annual AUC Research Conference. Office of Graduate Studies and Research, The American University in Cairo. July 1996.

  • [1995] The Great Rip-off: “Commercial Plazas”, Street Vendors and the “System” In Mexico City's Historical Center
    In late August 1995, over 3,000 “granaderos”, Mexico’s riot police, were deployed in the Historical Center of Mexico City. They were sent to remove thousands of street vendors who have defied the city’s orders that the center be “vendor-free” as part of the program of construction of “commercial plazas” for the relocation of vendors in the area. This show of public force shows the weakness of the government’s policies and augments the danger that they may result in a radicalization of street vendor organizations in opposition to the government. Written for the ‘Street Market Internet Server’.

  • [1997] Formalizing the Informal Economy: The Case of Street Vendors in Mexico City
    The government of Mexico City tries to formalize street vending in that city by relocating street vendors in part of the downtown area known as the “Historical Center” into enclosed market buildings. The forces behind the changes in policy towards street vending are analyzed and the weaknesses of the policies are discussed with reference to the powerful street vendor organizations active in the city.

  • [1997] Entrepreneurship & Exploitation: Measuring Independence and Dependence in the Informal Economy
    In: The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 17(1), 1997.
    A model for measuring exploitation and entrepreneurship within the informal economy. It focuses on their degree of independence from suppliers and clients.

  • [1998] Co-optation, Competition and Resistance: State and Street Vendors in Mexico City
    It challenges the current “common knowledge” about cooptation theory in Mexico using a case study approach that compares research carried out over a period of three years with four different struggles between street vendors and the city government in Mexico City. Published in Latin American Perspectives, 99(25): 41-61.

  • [2000] Street Vendors, Modernity and Postmodernity - Conflict and Compromise in the Global Economy
    In: International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 21(1/2).
    Exploration of street vending and the informal sector within the context of the shift from modernism to postmodernism. Although postmodernism is more open to the informal sector as the economy disaggregates, this also creates new dilemmas for the informal sector, as it is expected to solve the problems of the formal sector by becoming formal.

• Davies, Roy
  History of Money from Ancient Times to Present Day
  A chronology and a collection of essays.

• Fligstein, Neil
  • [1997] Is Globalization the Cause of the Crises of Welfare States?
    A paper prepared for the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association in Toronto, Canada in August 1997.
    Economic globalization refers to three related processes: 1) the growth in the world economy, 2) the change in the relations between first and third world countries that has resulted from the use of information technologies to reorganize production nationally and globally, and 3) the integration of world financial markets. These processes are often held responsible for deindustrialization in advanced industrial societies, increases in income inequality, and pressures on welfare states to transform worker protection and benefits. Fligstein demonstrates that the changes in the world economy are much smaller, more gradual, and unevenly spread across societies than the globalization thesis suggests. More important, the links between globalization and its alleged negative outcomes are tenuous at best. The rhetoric of globalization has more to do with the U.S. and changes in its political economy than changes in world trade. A brief concluding discussion considers how this is playing out in western Europe.

  • [1998] Fields, Power, and Social Skill: A Critical Analysis of The New Institutionalisms
    In: International Public Management Review
    “New Institutional” Theories have proliferated across the social sciences. While they have substantial disagreements, they agree that institutions are created to produce local social orders, are social constructions, fundamentally about how powerful groups create rules of interaction and maintain unequal resource distributions, and yet, once in existence, both constrain and enable actors in subsequent institution building. Fligstein presents a critique of these theories that focuses on their inadequate attention to the role of social power and actors in the creation of institutions. An alternative view of the dynamics of institutions is sketched out based on a more sociological conception of rules, resources, and social skill.

  • [2000] The Institutionalization of the Treaty of Rome

  • [2000] Globalization or Europeanization

  • [2001] Social Skill and the Theory of Fields
    In: Sociological Theory 19: 105-25.
    The problem of the relationship between actors and the social structures in which they are embedded is central to sociological theory. Fligstein suggests that the “new institutionalist” focus on fields, domains, or games provides an alternative view of how to think about this problem by focusing on the construction of local orders. He criticizes the conception of actors in both rational choice and sociological versions of these theories. A more sociological view of action, what is called “social skill” is developed. The idea of social skill originates in symbolic interactionism and is defined as the ability to induce cooperation in others. The idea is elaborated to suggesthow actors are important to the construction and reproduction of local orders. Fligstein shows how its elements already inform existing work.

  • [2004] The shareholder value society: Changes in working conditions and inequality in the U.S., 1975-2000 (with Taek-jin Shin)
    In: K. Neckerman [2004] Social Inequality, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
    There is now a solid set of results from economic sociologists concerning the spread and implementation of "shareholder value" strategies across publicly held corporations in the United States during the 1980s. Corporations were financially reorganized and used the tactics of selling off unrelated product lines, engaging in mergers with firms in similar industries, various financial ploys such as stock buybacks, and downsizing their labor forces. This paper explores empirically the connections between mergers, layoffs, de-unionization, computer technology, and subsequent industry profitability. Mergers occurred in sectors where economic conditions were not good in line with shareholder value arguments. Mergers subsequently led to layoffs, consistent with the shareholder value perspective that emphasizes that firms needed to deploy their resources more efficiently as they reorganized. There is also evidence that managers who engaged in mergers invested in computer technology. This technology directly displaced workers through layoffs and was focused on reducing unionized work forces. There is no evidence that mergers or layoffs returned industries to profitability. Only industry growth and computer investment led to increased profits. This suggests that shareholder value ideology was not, by itself, successful in righting the problems of American business.

  • [2005] Law and Corporate Governance (with: Jennifer Choo)
    In: Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2005, 1:61-84.
    Corporate governance concerns three sets of issues: property rights, relationships between firms and financial markets, and labor relations. Our literature review shows that the system of corporate governance that emerges within a particular country reflects the outcome of political, social, and economic struggles in that country and that it does not reflect efficiency considerations focused on managing agency relations between owners and managers. Despite these facts, much research has been done in recent years attempting to analyze whether a superior matrix of institutional arrangements or a set of best practices of corporate governance exists to produce greater economic growth. The review shows that there does not appear to be single set of best practices, but rather that what is important are stable institutions that are legitimate and prevent extreme rent seeking on the part of governments and capitalists.

  • [2007]The Sociology of Markets (with: Luke Dauter)
    In: Annual Review of Sociology, 33(6)
    The sociology of markets has been one of the most vibrant fields in sociology in the past 25 years. There is a great deal of agreement that markets are social structures characterized by extensive social relationships between firms, workers, suppliers, customers, and governments. But, like in many sociological literatures, the theory camps that have formed often seem to speak by each other. Fligstein & Dauter show that some of the disagreement between theory camps is due to differencesin conceptual language, and other disagreements stem from the fact that theory camps ignore the concepts in other theory camps, thereby making their theories less complete.We end by considering deeper controversies in the literature that seem open both to new conceptualization and further empirical research.

  • [2007] Shareholder Value and the Transformation of the American Economy, 1984-2001 (with: Taek-jin Shin)
    In: Sociological Forum, 22(4), December 2007.
    Using data from 62 U.S. industries for 1984–2000, Fligstein & Shin explore the connections between shareholder value strategies, such as mergers and layoffs, and related industry-level changes, such as de-unionization, computer technology, and profitability. In line with shareholder value arguments, mergers occurred in industries with low profits, and industries where mergers were active subsequently saw an increase in layoffs. Industries with a high level of mergers increased investment in computer technology. This technology displaced workers through layoffs and was focused on reducing unionized workforces. Contrary to shareholder value arguments, there is no evidence that mergers or layoffs returned industries to profitability.

• Forstater, Mathew [2002]
  How the AJES got its mission statement in 1941: Adolph Lowe's plea for cooperation and constructive synthesis in the social sciences
  In: American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Oct. 2002.

• Hodgson, Geoffrey M. - Business School, University of Herfordshire (USA)
  • [1998] The Approach of Institutional Economics
    In: Journal of Economic Literature, 36(1), March 1998, pp. 166-92.
    The term ‘new institutional economics’ is in widespread use and is associated with a vast literature. The temporal adjective in the adopted title of this broad set of postwar theories and approaches has been intended to demarcate the ‘new institutional economics’ from the ‘old’ institutional economics of Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, and Wesley Mitchell. This earlier institutionalism had actually been dominant in economics departments in American universities just after the First World War. Despite this, little detailed reference has been made by leading exponents of the ‘new’ institutional economics to this predecessor.

  • [2003] The Legal Nature of the Firm and the Myth of the Firm-Market Hybrid
    In: International Journal of the Economics of Business, 9(1), February 2002, pp. 37-60.
    A sharp conceptual distinction used to be drawn between the firm and the market. However, since the 1970s, many economists and sociologists have argued that the boundaries of the firm are indistinct. Ideas emerged of ‘internal markets’ within firms, of the ‘quasifirm’, of ‘hybrid firms’ and of firms as `quasi-markets’. Hudgson re-examines the formal, legal conception of the firm. It is argued that there is no good reason to abandon this conception, even in the light of relational contracting, networking, subcontracting and other developments. To avoid confusion, additional terms such as ‘supplier network’ or ‘conglomerate’ should be used to describe these phenomena, rather than abandoning a legally-based definition of the firm. With this clarified definition, `internal markets’ and ‘hybrid firms’ disappear from view.

  • [2003] The Evolution of Institutions: An Agenda for Future Theoretical Research
    In: Constitutional Political Economy, 13(2), June 2002, pp. 111-27.

  • [2003] Capitalism, Complexity, and Inequality
    In: Journal of Economic Issues, 37(2), June 2003, pp. 471-8.
    

  • [2003] John R. Commons and the Foundations of Institutional Economics
    In: Journal of Economic Issues, 37(3), September 2003, pp. 547-76.
    An evaluation of the attempts of John Rogers Commons (1862–1945) to provide the “old” tradition of American institutional economics with a systematic theoretical foundation. Although there are several other evaluations of Commons’ work, this essay reaches some novel conclusions. And although some of the other evaluations have also been largely methodological in content, the present essay chooses some themes that have not been developed to the same extent elsewhere. The main issues involved in the present appraisal are (a) Commons’ neglect of the instinct-habit psychology of William James and others; (b) his failure to appreciate the philosophical and other insights of Darwinism; and (c) his failure to give sufficient emphasis to extra-legal institutions, extra-legal self-organization, or spontaneous orders that do not involve legal rules. In at least some of these respects, the work of Commons contrasts significantly with that of Thorstein Veblen and others.

  • [2006] Institutions, Recessions and Recovery in the Transitional Economies
    In: Journal of Economic Issues, 40(4), December 2006, pp. 875-94.
    

  • [2007] Institutions and Individuals: Interaction and Evolution
    In: Organization Studies, 28(1), January 2007, pp. 95-116.
    The conceptualization of the relation between individual and structure is central to social science. After making some key definitions, Hodgson overviews some recent developments in the social theory of structure and agency, and makes a novel addition, based on a concept of habit derived from pragmatism and Veblenian institutional economics. Processes of habituation provide a mechanism of “reconstitutive downward causation” where institutional circumstances may affect individual preferences. Finally, special characteristics of organizations are discussed, endorsing an evolutionary analytical approach that combines insights from both evolutionary economics and organization science.

  • [2007] Meanings of Methodological Individualism
    In: Journal of Economic Methodology, 14(2), June 2007, pp. 211-26.
    Advocacy of ‘methodological individualism‘ is a widespread, especially among economists. However, the term is rarely defined with adequate precision and some crucial ambiguities are explored in this article. Among these is the commonplace ambivalence over whether explanations should be in terms of individuals alone, or in terms of individuals plus relations between them. It is shown that a great deal hinges on this subtle and often overlooked distinction in explanantia. In particular, explanations in terms of individuals alone have never, as yet, been achieved. Furthermore, the more feasible version of explanations in terms of individuals plus relations between them amount to the introduction of social structure alongside individuals in the explanantia. Serious questions remain whether this version warrants the one-sided emphasis on individuals in the term ‘methodological individualism’.

  • [2007] Evolutionary and Institutional Economics as the New Mainstream?
    In: Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 4(1), September 2007, pp. 7-25.
    Mainstream economics has changed radically since the 1980s, offering greatly enhanced opportunities for intervention by evolutionary and institutional economics. Hodgson surveys the extent of this transformation and the extent that mainstream economics has moved in an evolutionary and institutional direction. There are also signs of a possible gestalt shift in the social sciences, where rules are seen as constitutive of social relations and social reality. This contrasts with the former emphasis in mainstream economics on incremental change and equilibria. On the other hand, mainstream economics has a preoccupation with technique over substance, and the barriers between disciplines impair appropriate conceptual developments.

  • [2007] An institutional and evolutionary perspective on health economics
    In: Cambridge Journal of Economics, October. 2007.
    Neoclassical theoretical approaches dominate modern health economics. However, the peculiarities of healthcare provision are so unusual that neoclassical theory is especially unsuited to the area. Even mainstream health economists often abandon Paretian welfare considerations to focus on needs instead. Problems relating to uncertainty and externalities are also widely acknowledged. Hodgson shows that there are additional important pecularities of healthcare that are relatively neglected in the literature. Some of these concern healthcare needs: while health itself is a universal need, needs for healthcare provision are largely involuntary, varied and idiosyncratic. These issues have important consequences for the planning of healthcare systems and the extent of transaction costs in any market-based system. These factors, combined with the inherent dynamism of modern healthcare needs and capabilities, make institutional and evolutionary approaches especially suitable for healthcare economics.

  • [2007] The Economics of Corruption and the Corruption of Economics: An Institutionalist Perspective (with: Shuxia Jiang)
    In: Journal of Economic Issues (JEI), 41 (4), December 2007.
    The central argument in this paper is that the concept of corruption itself has been corrupted by the utilitarian underpinnings of mainstream economics and the ideological prejudices of many mainstream economists against state activity. The commonplace definition of corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain, itself reflects this conceptual corruption. There is no good reason why organizational corruption should be definitionally confined to the public sector, especially given the corporate scandals experienced in modern corporations. In exceptional cases, organizational corruption can be motivated other than by private gain. An alternative approach, drawing from the institutionalist literature, highlights the issues that are missing from the commonplace definition of corruption.

  • [2008] How Veblen Generalized Darwin
    In: Journal of Economic Issues (JEI), 42(2), June 2008.
    The inspiration of Darwin on Veblen is well known. However, the manner in which Veblen incorporated Darwinian ideas is inadequately appreciated. Veblen not only adopted Darwinian strictures on the causal explanation of the individual agent but also upheld that Darwinian principles of inheritance and selection applied to individual habits and social institutions. This amounts to the generalization of Darwinian principles to socio-economic evolution.

• Jessop, Bob (Dept. of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK)
  • [1999] The Dynamics of Partnership and Governance Failures
    In: Stoker, G. (ed.) The New Politics of Local Governance in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • [2000] The State and the Contradictions of the Knowledge-Driven Economy
    In: Bryson, J.R. / Daniels, P.W. / Henry, N.D. /Pollard, J. (eds.) Knowledge, Space, Economy. London: Routledge.

  • [2001] Capitalism, the Regulation Approach, and Critical Realism
    In: Brown, A. / Fleetwood, S. / Roberts, J. (eds.) Critical Realism and Marxism. London: Routledge.

  • [2001] On the spatio-temporal logics of capital's globalization and their maniford implications for state power

  • [2002] Globalization and the National State
    In: Aaronowitz, Stanley / Bratsis, Peter (ed.) Rethinking the State. Miliband, Poulantzas and State Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 185-220.

  • [2003] Recent Societal and Urban Change: Principles of Periodization and Views on the Current Period
    In: Albertsen, N. / Hemmersam, P. / Nielsen, T. (eds.) Urban Mutations: Periodizations, Scales and Mibilities. Aarhus: Arkitektskolens Forlag.

  • [2004] The European Union and Recent Transformations in Statehood
    In: Sonja Puntscher Riekmann (ed) [2005] Transformations of Statehood from a European Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    A state-theoretical but not state-centred approach to the emerging Europolity and its role in economic and political restructuring. It argues that an adequate account of these topics must relate it to more general changes in the political economy of capitalism and the political economy of the modern state – in part because the European Union is itself an integral moment therein. It also argues that recent changes in the economic and political organization of the EU point to the development of a relatively novel form of political regime. The previously dominant but competing state-centred and governance-centred paradigms cannot grasp the distinctiveness of this emerging regime. Jessop therefore introduces an alternative approach based on the strategic-relational approach to the state.

• Portes, Alejandro / Landolt, Patricia [1996]
  The Downside of Social Capital
  In: The American Prospect, 26 (May-June 1996): 18-21.
  Many intellectuals and policymakers have become enchanted with the concept of social capital. The implicit concensus is that social capital is important because it allows people to work together by resolving the dilemmas of collective action. Why this is actually so, however, is obscure. Portes & Landolt try to figure out what has gone wrong with the idea of social capital and its use in recent public debate.

• Scharpf, Fritz, W. - Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln (Germany)
  Economic Integration, Democracy and the Welfare State
  Plenary Lecture, 8th International Conference on Social Economics, University of Geneva, July 13, 1996. Although the present difficulties of democratic welfare states in Europe are often ascribed to economic “globalization”, this globalization is, at the most, realized only for speculative capital transactions. In all other areas of economic activity the intensity of international competition has increased as well, but even under the liberal regimes of GATT and WTO, governments have not abdicated their capacity for boundary control, and the freedom of world trade is still constrained by a wide variety of tariffs, quotas, “voluntary” restrictions and non-tariff barriers. Scharp argues that all this is different within the European Union, “where national governments have delegated control over external trade relationships to the Union, and where they have in fact abdicated boundary control over economic transactions within the internal European market. As a consequence, the competitive pressure on European welfare states originates mainly from the "regulatory competition" within the Union, and the frustrations of democratic governance in Europe mainly result from the fact that the range of feasible policy choices has been reduced at the national level while policy making at the European level still lacks democratic legitimacy.”

• Swedberg, Richard - Dept. of Sociology, Cornell University (USA)

  • [1987] The Paradigm of Economic Sociology: Premises and Promises (with: Ulf Himmelstrand and Goran Brylin)
    In: Theory and Society 16: 169-213.

  • [1994] Markets as Social Structures
    In: Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg (eds.) [1994] , Handbook of Economic Sociology. New York and Princeton: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton University Press. Pp. 255-82.

  • [1997] New Economic Sociology: What Has Been Accomplished, What Is Ahead?
    In: Acta Sociologica 40: 161-82.

  • [1998] Social Mechanisms (with: Peter Hedstrom)
    In: Cambridge University Press

  • [1998] Max Weber's Manifesto in Economic Sociology
    In: Archives Européennes de Sociologie 39(2): 379-98.

  • [1999] Max Weber as an Economist and as a Sociologist - Towards a Fuller Understanding of Weber's View of Economics
    In: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Oct. 1999.

  • [1999] Civil Courage (Zivilcourage): The Case of Knut Wicksell
    In: Theory and Society 28: 501-28.

  • [2000] The Social Science View of Entrepreneurship: Introduction and Practical Applications
    In: Richard Swedberg (ed.) [2000] Entrepreneurship: The Social Science View. Oxford University Press.

  • [2001] Sociology and Game Theory: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    In: Theory and Society 30: 301-35.

  • [2003] The Case for an Economic Sociology of Law
    In: Theory and Society 32: 1-37.

  • [2004] What has been Accomplished in New Economic Sociology and Where is it Heading?
    In: Archives Européennes de Sociologie 45(3): 317-30.

  • [2005] Conflicts of Interests in the U.S. Brokerage Industry
    In: Karin Knorr Cetina and Alex Preda (eds.) [2005] The Sociology of Financial Markets. New York: OXford University Press, pp. 187-203.

  • [2005] Can there be a sociological concept of interest?
    In: Theory and Society 34: 359-90.

  • [2005] Auguste Rodin's The Burghers of Calais: The Career of a Sculpture and Its Appeal to Civic Heroism
    In: Theory, Culture and Society 22(2): 45-67.

  • [2005] Towards an Economic Sociology of Capitalism
    In: L'Annee Sociologique 55: 419-50.

  • [2006] Tocqueville as Economic Sociologist?
    In: The Toqueville Review 27(1): 131-67.

  • [2006] Verstehende Wirtschaftssoziologie? On the Relationship between Max Weber’s “Basic Sociological Concepts” and his Economic Sociology
    In: Max Weber Studies, Beiheft 1, pp. 121-34.

  • [2007] The Sociological Study of Hope and the Economy: Introductory Remarks - Working paper

• Vedres, Balázs - Columbia University, USA
  Papers on interorganizational networks in the transforming Hungarian economy, discourse analysis based on network analysis and sequence analysis of enterprise life-stories in a transforming economy.

• Zelizer, Viviana A. - Dept. of Sociology, Princeton University (USA)
  • [2006] Circuits in economic life
    In: European Economic Sociology Newsletter, 1: November 2006: 30-35.

  • [2007] Ethics in the Economy
    In: Journal for Business, Economics & Ethics (zfwu) 1, 2007: 8-23.
    Economic sociologists lack coherent theories concerning how ethical disputes arise within economic life, and what effects their management has on organizational performance. Using formal codes of ethics within firms as its disciplined focus, we can develop a preliminary conceptualization of ethics in organizations, a series of hypotheses about how codes work, and a preliminary sketch of a research program that follows from these principles.

  • [2007] Reflections on intimicy
    In: Accounts, Economic Sociology Newsletter, Spring 2007.

  • [2007] Undeafening the Dialogue between Economics and Sociology
    Economics- Sociology Workshop, Princeton University, February 5, 2007.

Classical Texts on Economic Sociology

• Babbage, Charles (1792-1871)
  • Who was Charles Babbage? from the Charles Babbage Institute - Univ. of Minnesota, USA.
  • Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
  • The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (Part 1) -- Part 2 -- Part 3. (1932)
  
  

• Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1851-1914)
  • Capital and Interest (econlib.org) or McMaster
  • The Positive Theory of Capital (1891)
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  
  

• Commons, John Rogers (1962-1945)
  • Institutional Economics - American Econmic Review, vol.21, 1931.
  
  

• Hodgskin, Thomas (1786-1869)
  • Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital, or the Unproductiveness of Capital proved with Reference to the Present Combinations amongst Journeymen (1825). Or get the copy from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.
  • Bibliography of Hodgskin
  
  

• Jevons, William Stanley (1835-1882)
  • Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy (Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, London, XXIX, June, 1866).
  • Biographical summary or another biography on Jevons.
  • Bert Mosselmans (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) created a special page on Jevons.
  
  

• Keynes, John Maynard (1883-1946)
  • The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919)
  • The World's Economic Outlook (1932)
  • The General Theory of Employment (1936)
    This formidable treatise is an anthology of policy conclusions to be applied to cases of market failures, a manifesto for government intervention. It provides an efficient critique of the old orthodox Neoclassical theory and it develops a new general theory. Keynes's General Theory is probably the most influential social science treatise of the 20th Century. It quickly and permanently changed the way the world looked at the economy and the role of government in society. No other economics book, before or since, has had such an impact.
  • The Post Keynesian Thought Internet Archive (PKT)
    The objective of PKT is to support a virtual community of scholars interested in going beyond conventional neoclassical economic analysis and moving forward in the tradition of Keynes, Kalecki, Robinson, and Sraffa. The site offers virtual seminars, mailings lists, graduate programs, articles, syllabi & teaching material, and a list of other internet corners that might interest you.
  • The John Maynard Keynes Papers in King's College, Cambridge.
  • Biographical information
  • Bibliography on Keynes - Includes extensive links on Keynes and the Keynesian thought.
  
  

• Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766-1834)
  • An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) [First edition) or McMaster.
  • An Essay on the Principle of Population (1826) [Sixth edition]
  • Thomas Robert Malthus - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Malthus.
  • Bibliography of Malthus
  • Geoffrey M. Hodgson [2004] Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766-1834)
    In: Donald Rutherford (ed.) [2004] Biographical Dictionary of British Economists (Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum).
  
  

• Marshall, Alfred (1842-1924)
  • Principles of Economics (econlib.org) or from McMaster.
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  • Alfred Marshall - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Marshall.
  
  

• Marx, Karl (1818-1883)
  • Wage-Labor and Capital (1849)
  • The Grundrisse (1857)
  • Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations (1857)
  • Grundrisse (1857)
  • A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)
  • Theorien über den Mehrwert (MEW 26.2) (1862/3)
  • Capital I (1867) -- Capital III (1894)
  • Information on Marx and links to other texts: Marx & Engels Library -- Akamac -- Sociologists
  
  

• Menger, Carl (1840-1921)
  • On the Origins of Money (Economic Journal, vol. 2, 1892).
  • Carl Menger - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Menger.
  
  

• Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)
  • Principles of Political Economy with Some of their Applications to Social Philosphy (1848) or from McMaster
  • On Liberty (1859) | idem
  • Utilitarianism (1863) [Univ. of Texas, USA]
  • On Nature (1874)
  • Autobiography (1873)
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  • J.S. Mill - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Mill.
  
  

• Pareto, Vilfredo (1848-1923)
  • The New Theories of Economics (1897)- Journal of Political Economy, vol. 5.
  • Leçon d'économie pure à l'Université de Lausanne (1893)
  • Vilfredo Pareto - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Pareto.
  
  

• Petty, William (1623-1687)
  • A Treatise of Taxes & Contributions (1662).
  • A Brief Life of William Petty, 1623-87 by John Aubrey
  • Petty - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Petty.
  
  

• Proudhon, Pierre Joseph (1809-1865)
  • System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery (HTML at Virginia).
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  • Proudhon - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Proudhon.
  
  

• Quesnay, François (1964-1774)
  • Le Droit Naturel (1765). Or the same text at ecn.bris.uk or at unimel.edu.au.
  • Tableau Economique (1766). Or the same text at ecn.bris.uk or at unimel.edu.au
  • Quesnay - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Quesnay.
  
  

• Ricardo, David (1772-1823)
  • On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1821) [econlib.org] or idem [McMaster].
  • Biographical information and links to other text.
  • Ricardo - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Ricardo.
  
  

• Schmoller, Gustav von (1838-1917)
  • The Idea of Justice in Political Economy (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 4, 1893-4).
  • Schmoller - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Schmoller.
  
  

• Sismondi, Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de (1773-1842)
  • Political Economy (1815).
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  • Sismondi - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Sismondi.
  
  

• Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
  • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) [econlib.org] or idem [bibliomania.com]
    An online, indexed, copy of Adam Smith's classic 'Wealth of Nations.' Completely formated and searchable. Great reference link.
  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) [econlib.org] or idem [McMaster Univ.]
  • Biographical information and links to other texts.
  • Biography on Adam Smith by Digna Faber (Groningen, Netherlands).
  • The Adam Smith Page by: Edward J. Harpham (Univ. of Texas at Dallas, USA).
    A promotion of the study of the moral, political, and economic ideas of Adam Smith. The site includes a biography, a comprehensive bibliography of secondary works, a list of new and forthcoming scholarly articles and books on Smith, commentaries on Smith's work, and a collection of related links.
  • Smith - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Smith.
  
  

• Veblen, Thorsten (1857-1929)
  • Why is Economists Not an Evolutionary Science? - The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 12, 1898 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Limitations of Marginal Utility - Journal of Political Economy, vol. 17, 1909 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx and his Followers (Part 1) - The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 20, 1906.
  • The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx and his Followers (Part 2) - The Substance of Lectures before students in Harvard University in April, 1906 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Preconceptions of Economic Science (Part I) - The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 13,1899 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Preconceptions of Economic Science (Part II) - The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 13,1899 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Preconceptions of Economic Science (Part III) - The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 13,1899 (text files at McMaster).
  • The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904) (text files at McMaster).
  • The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) (Chapter 1 - 14) (text files at McMaster)
  • The Beginning of Ownership - American Journal of Sociology, vol. 4, 1898-9.
  • The Barbarian Status of Women - American Journal of Sociology, vol. 4, 1898-9
  • Biographical information and links to other text.
  • Veblen - Biographical and bibliographical information, including resources on Veblen.
  
  

• Weber, Max (1864-1920)

• Reference
  • Akamac E-text Links by Akama Michio. An extensive collection of e-texts, which includes brief bibiographical and reference material on authors featured.
  • Documents for the History of Economics - Tony Brewer (Univ. of Bristol, UK).
    A more or less up to date copy of the collection of documents created by Rod Hay at Mc Master Univ. From Europe this is faster than the original one.
  • History of Economic Thought (HET) - Leanne J. Ussher and Gonçalo L. Fonseca (Department of Economics of the New School for Social Research, John Hopkins University, USA).
    The site includes an extensive alphabetical index of economists, a history of economics by schools of thought, a collection of linked surveys and essays, and links on the history of economic thoughts.
  • History of Economic Thought - Rod Hay (McMaster Univ., Canada).
    A virtual library of partial or complete works of influential economists.
  • History of Economics Society - Ross B. Emmett (USA).
  • Library of Economics and Liberty
    Online works of Smith, Ricardo, Say, Cairnes, Bohm-Bawerk, Buchanan, and more. Carefully proofread, fully authorized works.
  • WebEc - Methodology and History of Economic Thought - Lauri Saarinen (Finland).

Business and Business History     Virtual Organizations Management

• Academy of Accounting Historians
  A not-for-profit corporation in Alabama (USA), that wants to encourage research, publication, teaching and personal interchanges in all phases of Accounting History and its interrelation with business and economic history.

• BedrijfsArchieven Register Nederland (BARN)
  A register of company archives in the Netherlands at the Netherlands Economic History Archive.

• Best Business History Sites
  Companies that intend to make business history see their own history as both an asset and a process. They continually re-think their core capabilities, they repeatedly reflect on lessons learned from past success and failure, and they ask all employees to find some way each day to redefine enduring corporate values and culture. And they feature it with pride as the move into the future. The site is presented by the Prologue Group, a consultancy specializing in corporate history.

• Business History at Ohio State (USA)
  Includes information of the business history program, general links, archival collections and company history links. Editor: K. Austin Kerr.

• Business History in Europe
  From the Newsletter of the European Business History Association (EBHA). Business history in Italy, The Netherlands, and Russia.

• Business, Guides - Richter Library, University of Miami, USA.

• bizz
  Middle and small businesses in the Netherlands. A commercial site, but free when you have registered.

• Center for Business History - Norwegian School of Management (NSM)
  Norway's largest educational institution within the fields of management, economics and business administration.

• Centre for International Business History (CIBH) - Reading (UK)

• Chambers of Commerce - Dutch (Kamer van Koophandel)

• Clean Clothes Campaign
  A Dutch nonprofit organisation giving information on developments and activities in the entire subcontracting chain (from homeworker to consumer) of the clothing industry, worldwide. Their aim is to improve the labour conditions in the clothing industry.

• Corporate Watch
  Dedicated to helping build greater democratic control over transnational corporations at the local, national and international levels. It is designed to provide you with an array of tools that you can use to investigate and analyze corporate activity. CW is committed to exposing corporate greed by documenting the social, political, economic and environmental impacts of these transnational giants. CW is a joint project of TRAC (The Transnational Resource and Action Center), and IGC (The Institute for Global Communications).

• Doing Business on the Interet
  A resource collection from the Library of Congres.

• Dow Jones Business Directory
  An annotated and searchable webliography of business sites. The sites are reviewed and rated on their quality in terms of content, speed, navigation and design. They cover business news, economics, companies, industries, and financial data according. The site includes links to career information, government data, and discussion groups.

• ENTERweb
  An annotated meta-index and information clearinghouse on enterprise development, entrepreneurship, business, finance, international trade and the economy in this new age of cyberspace and globalization. The main focus is on micro, small and medium scale enterprises, cooperatives, community economic development, both in developed and developing countries. French and English version.

• Essential Information
  Essential Information is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader. Links are provided to the following services of the organization: Geographic Information Systems Project (a geographic navigator to access community-based development data); Multinationals and Development Clearinghouse (a resource center that provides information on the history of multinational companies and the health and environmental problems associated with their products and operations); selected articles from Multinational Monitor, EI's newsletter; and Network Services (which provides links to over 30 non-profit organizations, including Action for Corporate Accountability, Center for the Study of Commercialism, and Taxpayer Assets Project). EI is involved in a variety of projects to encourage citizens to become active and engaged in their communities.

• Ethics Connection
  Presented by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University (USA). The sites contain information about the center, publications, ethics in practice, and a collection of links on business ethics (all categorized, rated, and reviewed).

• European directory of companies
  500,000 European companies referenced in over 33 countries.

• European Business History Association (EBHA)

• Global Business Network (GBN)
  A membership organization specializing in scenario thinking and collaborative learning about the future. GBN's worldwide network includes subscribing organizations --strategists from more than fifty leading companies-- and select individuals from the sciences, arts, business, and academia. GBN brings these members together in varied ways to explore driving forces and uncertainties and to integrate these insights into alternative stories about the future. GBN uses this scenario methodology as a "language" in order to reframe executives' mental models, increase their range of vision, and ultimately increase the organization's perceptive powers.

• History of Individual Companies
  Editor: K. Austin Kerr (Ohio State Univ., USA).

• Labour and Business History - WWW Virtual Library.
  A very comprehensive, well organized collection of links. See especially the category Business and Economic History. Maintained by the International Institute of Social History and the Netherlands Economic History Archive (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

• Mailing Lists
  • euro-business-history
    Devoted to scholarly discussion of business history in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. Its purpose is threefold: to disseminate information across the Continent, to act as a forum for expressing opinion within the discipline, and to present useful ideas and methods from other fields.

  • management-history
    Supports critical and scholarly discussion, reflection and research in the area of management and administrative history; and the development of historically informed analyses and explorations of management practices and of management philosophy and thought.
  
  

• MKB-Net
  Middle- and Small Businesses in the Netherlands.

• Multinational Monitor
  A comprehensive service devoted to the tracking of corporate activities, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, worker health and safety, labor union issues and the environment.

• Multinationals Resource Center (MRC)
  A project of Multinational Monitor magazine. MRC is designed to help activists, journalists, academics and others who need information on the activities of corporations operating in their communities. MRC provides information on topics such as: company history, environmental and workplace hazards associated with various production processes, health and environmental problems associated with products ranging from pharmaceuticals to pesticides, and the dangers of large-scale waste disposal. The Resource Center responds to individual requests for information on a case-by-case basis.

• Società Italiana degli Storici dell'Economia (SISE)
  Italian Business Historians Association. Italian and English version.

• Vereniging FME-CWM
  Information on the biggest Dutch industrial organization of employers.

• VNO-NCW
  Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers. 'The voice of Dutch business.'

Corporations

• Australian Companies
  The National Library of Australia provides a brief overview of Australian company information.

• Bedrijven NET
  Information on Dutch businesses.

• BizWeb
  Company and product information. Companies are categorized and listed by the goods or services they provide.

• Companies - Yahoo!

• Forbes International 500
  List of the top ranking International companies. Companies can be searched by name, country, or industry type. Company listings contain contact information and Website addresses, and of course, the numbers: basic revenue, assets, market value, and stock price and earnings information.

• Economie.Startpagina.nl
  Links to Dutch enterprises, commercial services and banks.

• Fortune 500
  Information on the 500 companies in the latest Fortune 500. The list can be viewed by revenue, alphabetically for stock price information, or by industry for over fifty industries. There are also medians for nine earnings categories, and top performers for twelve. A CEO list is included and the site is searchable by company, industry, or CEO. Balance sheets and stock snapshots are provided for most companies listed, as are web links when available.

• Industry Research Desk
  Provides tools for researching specific companies, industries, and manufacturing processes; a general guide on how to trace company information step by step. Also links to other internet sites focusing on specific industries (mainly USA in origin). Also provides information on the new NAICS (North American Industry Classification System that will soon replace the old SIC (Standard Industrial Classification system) in the US.

• Internet Bedrijfswijzer
  Commercial Services in the Netherlands.

• Internet Guide
  Enterprises on the Dutch Web.

• Kompass
  Directory of companies in over 60 countries, including product references, executives nammes, trade & brand names.

• SuperPages
  Yellow Pages that combines a complete list of U.S. businesses with street-level maps, customer voting, reviews and personal address books.

• ZZN (Zaken Net Nederland)
  A business net where you can search and browse for companies in the Nederlands. Dutch and English version.

Editor	dr. Albert Benschop Social & Behavioral Studies University of Amsterdam
Created	July, 1996
Last modified	16th July, 2009