Performativity of economic systems: approach and implications for taxonomy

Abstract

The paper proposes to ground the taxonomy of economic systems on the identification of strongly performative institutions as distinctive features. I analyse performativity on the basis of the Aoki model of institutions, enriched by current approaches to performativity, which I combine with Searle's notion of a status function. Performativity is conceived as resulting from the conjunction of public representations (sign systems) and behavioural dispositions which channel strategic interactions among actors such that certain sets of institutions are reproduced recurrently. I apply this approach to the case of ‘financial capitalism’ and analyse three strongly performative institutions, the accounting standards (International Financial Reporting Standards), managerial incentive systems and intellectual property rights.

Keywords:

• performativity
• distributed cognition
• status functions
• taxonomy of economic systems
• financial capitalism

Keywords:

• B41
• P00

Acknowledgements

Work on this paper has been substantially improved by the comments of two anonymous JEM reviewers. I was particularly grateful to receive guidance to the literature on ideas in political science. Thanks to Judith Mader for language editing.