Building on the results of a previous grant, this research will collect and compile data sets in computer readable files, and conduct a comparative empirical and theoretical study of the nature, evolution, and implications of specific non-market economic institutions in England and Italy between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. The research will concentrate on the institutions that supported "anonymous" markets for goods which are separated by time place such as credit markets and contracts for future delivery. An extensive data collection effort and a theoretical framework, building on recent developments in game theory, contract theory, and organization theory, will facilitate an empirical examination of these institutions. In addition, the study is aimed at compiling data sets which will provide a better understanding of the institutions that governed agency relations in Genoa during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. To analyze and present this data, the research will take advantage of an analytical method which so far has not been utilized by economic historians, namely, network analysis. This research is important because it will shed new light on the nature and evolution of modern institutions, thereby facilitating the understanding of the institutional transition that developing economies and the economies of the former Eastern block still face.
