Journal Files A.A.S
What's the Point Series: Period 1
The Toll Collector, by Charlie Russell J.F. AAS, Aug. 26, 1996
What's the point of introducing this painting into a course in institutional economics?
1. Institutions are relationships among people and as such don't show in a physical representation. They may influence the course of events, but the meaning of the events cannot always be inferred from the physical movements of goods. We need to know what is in peoples' heads.
2. The ambiguity of the relationship between cowboy and Indian is illustrated by the fact that we can put different names to the cow which moves across the landscape and into different people's mouths. The possibilities include: payment for a good (cow for grass or passage across the land), a user charge, a tax, a fine, a bribe, a gift, tribute, spoils of war or threats, sacred totem, or a harvest of nature. Categories are a human artifact and the biologist will use a different taxonomy than the economist. Does what happens next depend on how the parties regard the cow?
3. The painting can introduce the variables which make up the theory of institutional economics. First, it can help us identify the physical goods: beef, grass, land, people, etc. and the stakeholders (cowboys, Indians, though some don't show such as tourists or consumers of beef). But we must add categories of these goods that help identify human interdependence (how one person's choices affect another). Are the interdependence creating features of cows different from land and different still from water or information about their quality?
4. The painting does little to help us understand the relationship between cowboy and Indian. We need a typology of the possibilities: Bargained, administrative or status-grant. The name we put on the cow reveals something of the relationship. Does the goods movement of the cow represent a payment in a trade, a taxation, or a gift? The name put on the actors also reveals the character of the transaction. Is the Indian an owner-seller or leaser, tax collector, or war lord? Is the cowboy an agent of a charitable organization or government welfare program?
5. The performance categories of interest must also be chosen. Some will be interested in total production, some in income distribution (who eats the beef), others in conservation of the land and water, and some in the type of people produced.
The title that Russell gave his painting tells us what he thought the institutions were or should have been!
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If you have any questions or comments, please email schmid@pilot.msu.edu
