In the spring on 2006, a workshop was held at Michigan State University to honour the career of A. Allan Schmid and his writings about how institutions evolve and how alternative institutions, including property rights, shape political relationships and impact economic performance. This edited book is the outcome of the workshop. It is a collection

1 Power and the troublesome economist: complementarities among recent institutional theorists 2 Some problems in assessing the evolution and impact of institutions 3 Developing a method for analyzing institutional change 4 Does economic development require "certain" property rights? 5 Institutional economics as volitional pragmatism 6 Institutions and rationality 7 Simplicity in institutional design 8 The essence of economics: law, participation and institutional choice (two ways) 9 Is law facilitating or inhibiting transactions? 10 On Institutional Individualism as a middle-way mode of explanation for approaching organizational issues 11 The role of attitudes in action and institutional change: an evolutionary perspective 12 Post-Keynesian institutionalism and the anxious society 13 Toward a theory of induced institutional change: power, labor markets, and institutional change 14 The instituted nature of market information: the case of induced innovation and environmental regulation 15 The role of culture and social norms in theories of institutional change: the case of agricultural cooperatives 16 Payment for environmental services and other institutions for protecting drinking water in eastern Costa Rica 17 A dialogue on institutions: various approaches to assessing the evolution and impact of alternative institutional structures