Employment and Economic Insecurity: a Commonsian Perspective

The principal concern of this paper is with the need of a theoretical shift in economics for analyzing and devising efficient and innovative policy reforms to combat employment insecurity. Mainstream economics is unable to provide appropriate theorizing about economic phenomena, including economic insecurity. Thus, we must turn to economic theories which radically question the dominant paradigm in economics. John Rogers Commons's institutionalist theory accomplishes that. First, the author of this paper outlines the distinctive character of this theory by presenting some of its crucial methodological differences with neoclassical economics. Second, she explains how economic insecurity is conceptualized as an "instituted" process with this theory of institution. A better mastery of this specific school of thought in economics appears to escape the problems met by mainstream economics by proposing a real theoretical alternative for the development of a truly evolutionary, trans-disciplinary and ethical economic theory.