It was not until I got my first job, at the University of Washington in Seattle, and began playing chess with Don Gordon, a brilliant young theorist, that I learned economic theory. — Douglass North Copy Share Image
Economists have the correct insight that economics is a theory of choice, the key to the story is the variety of options and centralised political control limits the options. The best recipe is adaptive efficiency coping with novel uncertainty in… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
I went back to graduate school with the clear intention that what I wanted to do with my life was to improve societies, and… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
To predict the future we would have to know today what we will learn tomorrow which will shape our future actions — Douglass North Copy Share Image
The evolution of government from its medieval, Mafia-like character to that embodying modern legal institutions and instruments is a major part of the history… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
I went to elementary school in Ottawa, and then to a private secondary school. — Douglass North Copy Share Image
Information costs are reduced by the existence of large numbers of buyers and sellers. Under these conditions, prices embody the same information that would… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
My early work and publications centered around expanding on the analysis of life insurance in my dissertation and its relationship to investment banking. — Douglass North Copy Share Image
Conformity can be costly in a world of uncertainty which requires innovative institutional creation because no one can know the right path to survival.… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
When it came time to go to college, I had been accepted for Harvard when my father was offered the position of head of… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
I would be remiss if I left the impression that my life has been totally preoccupied with scholarly research. — Douglass North Copy Share Image
In 1972 I married again, to Elisabeth Case; she continues to be wife, companion, critic and editor: a partner in the projects and programs… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
The development of a political-economic framework to explore long-run institutional change occupied me during all of the 1980s and led to the publication of… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
I continue to be a photographer; I have enjoyed fishing and hunting with a close friend; and have owned two ranches, first in northern… — Douglass North Copy Share Image
