--- title: "AFEE 2027 Conference — Washington | Model Diplomat" description: "AFEE 2027 Conference – Institutional Economics at its Frontiers is a professional conference in Washington, United States, Jan 3–5, 2027." url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/conferences/professional/afee-2027-conference-institutional-economics-at-its-frontiers-2027" --- # AFEE 2027 Conference – Institutional Economics at its Frontiers Jan 3–5, 2027[Washington, United States](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1\&query=Washington%2C%20United%20States)In-person [Registration open](https://afee.net/afee-call-for-papers-2027/) The AFEE 2027 Conference, themed 'Institutional Economics at its Frontiers,' will convene in Washington, United States. This event serves as a critical forum for scholars and practitioners to delve into the evolving landscape of institutional economics, exploring its theoretical advancements and practical applications in contemporary global challenges. Participants will engage in discussions that push the boundaries of current understanding, fostering new research directions and interdisciplinary collaborations. ## Committees & topics - Topics New Developments in Original Institutional Economics · Reassessing Core Institutionalist Concepts: Power, Value, Social Control, and Working Rules · Institutional Change, Stability, and Path Dependence · Evolutionary and Historical Approaches to Economic Analysis · Revisiting and Extending Veblen, Commons, Ayres, Galbraith, Polanyi, and Related Traditions · Institutional Economics in Dialogue with Feminist, Marxian, Post-Keynesian, Ecological, and Decolonial Approaches · Methodological Pluralism in Institutional Economics · Qualitative, Historical, Archival, and Ethnographic Methods ## Why it matters Institutional economics offers a vital lens through which to understand the complex interplay between societal structures, human behavior, and economic outcomes. In an era marked by rapid technological change, shifting geopolitical dynamics, and persistent global challenges, the insights derived from this field are more pertinent than ever. The conference provides a platform for examining how institutions, both formal and informal, shape economic development, influence policy decisions, and contribute to or hinder societal well-being. This gathering is particularly significant for its focus on the 'frontiers' of institutional economics. This implies an exploration of novel methodologies, emerging areas of application, and critical re-evaluations of established theories. Such an approach is essential for ensuring that the field remains relevant and responsive to the complexities of the modern world, offering robust frameworks for analysis and problem-solving. The discussions will likely touch upon issues ranging from market design and regulatory frameworks to the economics of innovation and the role of governance in fostering sustainable growth. ## How to prepare For those preparing to engage with the themes of the AFEE 2027 Conference, a deep understanding of institutional economics is paramount. This includes familiarity with core concepts such as transaction costs, property rights, and the role of norms and conventions in economic activity. Participants should be prepared to discuss how these foundational ideas are being reinterpreted or expanded upon in light of new empirical evidence and theoretical developments. Consider how different institutional arrangements impact economic performance and societal welfare. For instance, exploring the nuances of how formal legal systems versus informal social contracts influence economic actors can provide valuable insights. Additionally, understanding the dynamics of institutional change and persistence, as well as the mechanisms through which institutions evolve or are reformed, will be crucial for contributing meaningfully to the conference's discussions. Engaging with lessons such as "[Dynamic Analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/dynamic-analysis)" and "Understanding Motivations" can provide a framework for analyzing these complex interactions. Furthermore, considering how various stakeholders, as explored in "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" and "[Hidden Stakeholders](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/hidden-stakeholders)," are affected by and influence institutional frameworks will enrich any analysis. ## Country perspectives Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile. [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [A key center for institutional economic thought and policy application.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [The USA, as the host nation, is a significant hub for institutional economics research and policy implementation. Its diverse economic landscape and robust academic institutions provide a rich environment for studying the impact of various institutional structures on market dynamics, regulatory frameworks, and innovation. Discussions at the conference will likely draw heavily on examples and case studies from the USA, reflecting its influence on global economic discourse.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) ## Topics & background The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it. 1 ### New Developments in Original Institutional Economics Original Institutional Economics (OIE) emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, Wesley Mitchell, and Clarence Ayres, distinguishing itself from neoclassical economics by emphasizing habits, institutions, technology, and evolutionary processes rather than equilibrium and rational choice. After being marginalized during the mid-20th century rise of formalist economics, OIE was revitalized through the founding of the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) in 1965 and its Journal of Economic Issues, sustaining a distinct heterodox tradition centered in the United States but with growing European and global participation. In recent decades, OIE scholars have pushed the tradition into new terrain: the analysis of financialization, platform capitalism, climate breakdown, care economies, and the institutional dimensions of inequality. Debates continue over how sharply to distinguish OIE from New Institutional Economics (Williamson, North), how to incorporate insights from complexity and evolutionary biology, and how to operationalize concepts like instrumental valuation for contemporary policy. The frontier today involves both deepening theoretical foundations and demonstrating empirical and policy relevance — from industrial policy revivals to just transition frameworks — while engaging with adjacent heterodox traditions and reckoning with the discipline's Eurocentric origins. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Historic home of OIE and AFEE; site of the original Veblen-Commons-Ayres tradition](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Major hub of evolutionary and institutional scholarship via EAEPE-linked networks](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Strong tradition of historical and institutional economics, including ordoliberal and evolutionary strands](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Régulation school and conventions theory extend institutionalist analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) - [Italy](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) [Active community in evolutionary economics and Sraffian-institutionalist dialogue](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) 2 ### Reassessing Core Institutionalist Concepts: Power, Value, Social Control, and Working Rules Core concepts of OIE — power, value, social control, and working rules — were forged in specific historical contexts. Commons defined working rules as the collective constraints and permissions structuring transactions; Veblen analyzed pecuniary versus industrial values and the power of vested interests; Ayres developed the instrumental theory of value contrasting ceremonial and technological behavior; and the broader tradition framed the economy as a system of social control rather than spontaneous market order. These concepts have been challenged and extended by later developments. Feminist economists have questioned the gender-blindness of classical formulations of work and value; ecological economists have insisted that instrumental valuation incorporate biophysical limits; and scholars of race and empire have probed how 'social control' historically encoded exclusion. Meanwhile, the resurgence of corporate concentration, digital monopoly, and geoeconomic statecraft has put questions of power back at the center of economic analysis. The contemporary task is to reassess whether these foundational categories remain analytically sharp, how they translate across cultural and institutional contexts, and how they should be revised to address platform power, financial dominance, climate governance, and the redefinition of work. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Origin of the Veblen-Commons-Ayres conceptual apparatus and ongoing theoretical debates](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Center of critical realist and power-focused institutional analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Régulation and conventions schools reframing value and social coordination](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Latin American structuralist and institutionalist work on power asymmetries](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Historical school legacy informing rules-based and power-centered analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) 3 ### Institutional Change, Stability, and Path Dependence Understanding how institutions persist, evolve, or transform has been central to institutional economics since Veblen's account of cumulative causation and Commons's analysis of legal-economic evolution. The late 20th century brought formal treatments of path dependence (David, Arthur) and lock-in, alongside Douglass North's work on institutional change and historical political economy accounts of critical junctures and gradual transformation (Mahoney, Thelen). Debates persist over the relative weight of agency versus structure, the role of crises and exogenous shocks, and how to model layered, drifting, or converted institutions. The 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, and the geopolitical fragmentation of the 2020s have all served as natural experiments in institutional resilience and reconfiguration, exposing both the stickiness of incumbent arrangements and the possibility of rapid policy shifts. The current frontier asks how path dependence interacts with intentional institutional design — for example, in industrial policy revivals, central bank mandates, and decarbonization pathways — and how evolutionary frameworks can illuminate both stability traps and windows for transformation. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Major site of path dependence theory and historical institutionalism](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Varieties of capitalism and comparative institutional analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Coordinated market economy archetype and source of incremental change theory](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Japan](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) [Comparative institutional analysis tradition and case of institutional persistence](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) - [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Live case of state-led institutional transformation and hybrid forms](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) 4 ### Evolutionary and Historical Approaches to Economic Analysis Evolutionary economics traces its lineage to Veblen's call for a 'post-Darwinian' economics and was revived in modern form by Nelson and Winter's 1982 Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, which modeled firms as bundles of routines undergoing selection. Parallel historical approaches — from the German Historical School to the Annales tradition, economic history, and historical political economy — have insisted on the time-bound, context-specific nature of economic phenomena. These traditions share a rejection of timeless equilibrium analysis in favor of process, novelty, and cumulative causation. They have shaped scholarship on technological change, innovation systems, long waves, growth regimes, and the rise and decline of economic orders. Recent work integrates complexity economics, agent-based modeling, and big-data historical reconstruction with longstanding qualitative methods. Key debates concern the appropriate analogues to biological evolution, the place of intentionality and learning, the relationship between micro-routines and macro-patterns, and how historical scholarship should inform contemporary policy on innovation, industrial strategy, and structural transformation. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Home of Nelson-Winter evolutionary tradition and innovation systems literature](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [SPRU and broader innovation studies hub; evolutionary policy research](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Historical School legacy and evolutionary growth modeling](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Italy](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) [Sant'Anna and Sraffian-evolutionary syntheses](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Régulation school's historical-evolutionary analysis of capitalism](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) 5 ### Revisiting and Extending Veblen, Commons, Ayres, Galbraith, Polanyi, and Related Traditions The institutionalist canon spans Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary critique of pecuniary culture, John R. Commons's legal-economic analysis of transactions and collective action, Clarence Ayres's instrumental theory of value, John Kenneth Galbraith's accounts of countervailing power and the affluent society, and Karl Polanyi's analysis of the 'great transformation' and the social embeddedness of markets. Adjacent traditions — including the French Régulation school, conventions theory, the Frankfurt School's political economy, and Latin American structuralism — share many of these concerns. These thinkers anticipated many features of contemporary capitalism: financialization (Veblen on absentee ownership), corporate planning (Galbraith on the technostructure), the commodification of land, labor, and money (Polanyi), and the centrality of legal rules to market outcomes (Commons). Their relative neglect during the high tide of neoclassical economics has given way to renewed interest amid recurrent crises. The current task is not antiquarian but generative: extending these frameworks to platform capitalism, ecological breakdown, geoeconomic statecraft, and the politics of money and credit, while critically interrogating the blind spots — particularly around race, gender, and empire — of the founding figures. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Home of Veblen, Commons, Ayres, and Galbraith and primary site of canonical scholarship](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [Austria](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/austria) [Birthplace of Polanyi and Vienna intellectual context](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/austria) - [Hungary](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/hungary) [Polanyi's Hungarian origins and ongoing Polanyian scholarship](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/hungary) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Polanyi's later British context; major hub of Polanyian and Galbraithian revival](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [Canada](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/canada) [Polanyi Institute and active institutionalist communities](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/canada) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Régulation and conventions traditions extending the institutionalist legacy](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) 6 ### Institutional Economics in Dialogue with Feminist, Marxian, Post-Keynesian, Ecological, and Decolonial Approaches Heterodox economics comprises overlapping but distinct traditions that have long maintained productive tensions with institutionalism. Feminist economics foregrounds care, social reproduction, and gendered power; Marxian political economy centers class, exploitation, and capital accumulation; post-Keynesian economics emphasizes fundamental uncertainty, effective demand, and monetary production; ecological economics insists on biophysical limits and entropy; and decolonial approaches challenge the Eurocentric construction of economic knowledge and the colonial roots of global inequality. Institutionalism's emphases on power, history, evolution, and social embeddedness offer natural points of dialogue, and significant cross-fertilization has occurred — visible in care-economy scholarship, social structures of accumulation theory, monetary-institutional analyses of financialization, ecological-institutionalist work on commons and provisioning, and growing engagement with scholars from the Global South. Tensions remain over methodology, the priority of class versus other axes of power, and the universality of categories developed in the North Atlantic. The frontier involves building genuine synthesis rather than mere coexistence, while preserving the analytical distinctness of each tradition and addressing pressing issues such as just transitions, global inequality, and the remaking of work. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Major site of feminist, ecological, and institutionalist scholarship and IAFFE origins](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Hub of post-Keynesian and Marxian political economy engaged with institutionalism](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Center of decolonial, development, and feminist economics scholarship](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Latin American structuralist and decolonial political economy traditions](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [South Africa](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [African political economy and decolonial economic thought](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Régulation, ecological, and feminist economics communities](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) 7 ### Methodological Pluralism in Institutional Economics Institutional economics has long resisted the methodological monism of mainstream economics, drawing on history, law, sociology, anthropology, and political science alongside formal modeling. Methodological pluralism — the principled use of multiple, complementary methods and theoretical lenses — has been defended by figures such as Sheila Dow, Tony Lawson, Geoffrey Hodgson, and Wilfred Dolfsma, often in conversation with critical realism and the philosophy of social science. The case for pluralism rests on the open, structured, and historically situated character of economic systems, which no single method can fully capture. Pluralism is distinguished from 'anything goes' eclecticism by criteria of internal consistency, ontological fit, and dialogue across approaches. It has institutional implications for journals, curricula, and the organization of the discipline, where pressures toward standardization remain strong. Current debates concern how to combine quantitative, computational, qualitative, and historical methods in practice; how to assess and compare findings across paradigms; and how to defend pluralism within hiring, publishing, and funding systems that often reward methodological uniformity. Key players - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Center of critical realist and pluralist methodology debates (Cambridge, Heterodox networks)](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [AFEE and ICAPE communities advancing pluralism in research and teaching](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [Netherlands](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [Active pluralist economics networks and EAEPE participation](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Strong pluralist student movement and heterodox research centers](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Australia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) [Society of Heterodox Economists and pluralist scholarship](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) 8 ### Qualitative, Historical, Archival, and Ethnographic Methods Long before the contemporary 'qualitative turn' in parts of economics, institutionalists relied on case studies, legal-historical analysis, business history, and direct observation. Commons's investigations of labor and industrial relations, the Wisconsin school's legal-economic research, and Mitchell's empirical work on business cycles drew on extensive archival and documentary evidence, while later scholars such as Polanyi and Galbraith combined historical narrative with conceptual innovation. These methods have been complemented by ethnographic approaches drawn from economic anthropology and economic sociology — including studies of markets as social constructions, the lived experience of work and finance, and the everyday politics of valuation. Archival work has been central to historical political economy, business history, and the reconstruction of regulatory and monetary regimes. Such methods generate evidence that statistical and formal approaches typically cannot. The contemporary frontier includes the integration of qualitative and computational methods, the use of digital archives and text-as-data, ethnographies of finance and platforms, oral histories of economic change, and reflexive attention to positionality — particularly as research engages communities and institutions across the Global South and historically marginalized populations. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Wisconsin school legacy, economic sociology, and business history traditions](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Strong traditions of social and economic history and ethnographies of finance](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Annales historical tradition and economic sociology (Bourdieu, conventions)](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Max Planck Institute and historical-sociological economic research](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Subaltern studies and ethnographic political economy contributions](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) ## Resources News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AFEE 2027 Conference – Institutional Economics at its Frontiers. Recent reporting to ground your prep [US Job Openings at 6.7M](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/us-job-openings-at-67m-implications-for-2026-elections) [Trump's Economic Reset](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/trumps-economic-reset-aiming-to-tackle-high-gas-prices) [Trump's Impact on GOP](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/trumps-impact-on-gop-a-structural-crisis-ahead-of-2026) [Trump's Economic Approval Hits 30% Amid Iran](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/trumps-economic-approval-plummets-to-30-amid-iran-tensions) Lessons Bite-sized lessons to build the basics [Dynamic Analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/dynamic-analysis) [The Power-Interest Grid](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/power-interest-grid) [Hidden Stakeholders](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/hidden-stakeholders) [What Is Stakeholder Mapping?](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/what-is-stakeholder-mapping) Courses Guided courses that go deeper on the topic [Advanced Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/advanced-negotiation) [Multilateral Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/multilateral-negotiation) [Policy Brief Writing](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/policy-brief) [Conflict Resolution](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/conflict-resolution) The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Italy](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/italy) [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Japan](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Austria](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/austria) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/austria) [Hungary](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/hungary) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/hungary) [Canada](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/canada) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/canada) [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [South Africa](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Netherlands](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [Australia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) ## Frequently asked questions - - - Free account Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free. [Create free account](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-up?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Fafee-2027-conference-institutional-economics-at-its-frontiers-2027) Already a member? [Log in](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-in?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Fafee-2027-conference-institutional-economics-at-its-frontiers-2027) Free account Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free. [Create free account](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-up?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Fafee-2027-conference-institutional-economics-at-its-frontiers-2027) Already a member? [Log in](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-in?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Fafee-2027-conference-institutional-economics-at-its-frontiers-2027)