The New Institutional Economics of Markets

I discuss papers presented at the session The New Institutional Economics of Markets at the 10th ISNIE conference in Boulder, Colorado. Richter [2007] provides a model of a market organization illustrated by the example of the American tobacco industry. Egbert [2007] analyzes the culture of open-air horse markets in Germany. Haucap, Pauly, and Wey [2007] discuss why the inefficient legislation regulating the German labor market has proved so stable and difficult to reform. I suggest possible extensions to the model suggested by Richter [2007] and discuss them, based on the case studies provided by the other two papers. (JEL: D 02)