Academic Seminar with Lisa Bernstein

Lisa Bernstein

Private Ordering and the Network Basis of Trade:  From Cliques to Small Worlds

This seminar will visit some of the seminal case studies in private ordering, such as those done by Landa, Greif and Bernstein, and suggest that while all of them focus on the role of small groups and social or ethnic homogeneity in giving rise to the conditions that can support trade outside the legal system, they can all be better understood and their insights more fruitfully deployed in developing or transition economies if they are reinterpreted through the lens of social network analysis. This indeed reveals that it is the pattern of ties among transactors in the relevant markets, not their ethnic basis, that provides the preconditions needed for private ordering to succeed.

Register for an attendance in person at Dauphine or join the seminar online.