Essays on contextual and cultural approaches to the economics of social policy

The dissertation explores the interrelation between social policies and the informal institutions of societies. In order to contribute to this discussion, the dissertation does not chiefly add to the empirical findings on the matter, but instead opts to broaden our theoretical understanding of how the context under which economic activity takes place influences the decision of various actors. With respect to this, inquiry into informal constraints (i. a. culture, narratives, values and norms) is given priority over research into the formal institutions (i. a. the legal system) of societies. Special effort is made not only to add to the current discussion, but also to revive former approaches to similar questions and to pick up certain discussions that had previously been relegated to the realm of the history of economic thought, and to reapply them to contemporary economic and social problems. Furthermore, an effort is being made to converge the previously unconnected, yet related approaches of contextual economics and "mainline economics".