The emergence and evolution of institutions. Connections between institutional economics and the austrian school

This article aims at analyzing the similar viewpoints between the Austrian approaches of institutions and what we call today (new)institutional economics. We assume the hypothesis that when it comes to the emergence and evolution of institutions, the Austrian School has inspired, explicitly or not, the recent contributions in this area. We focus mostly on the contributions of Carl Menger and Friedrich von Hayek, considered to have achieved the most advanced level in the evolutionary perspective of the Austrian tradition.human action, spontaneous order, Austrian School, Institutional economics, institutional evolution.