Douglass North

institutions and economic performance.

Douglass North (1920–2015) was Spencer T. Olin Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. His career established economic history as a rigorous analytical discipline. He is best known for arguing that institutions—property rights, contracts, and cultural norms—determine whether economies grow or stagnate, most fully set out in his 1990 book Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance.