INSTITUTION: An established method or way of doing something that's widely accepted throughout society. Common institutions include marriage, markets, high school football in the fall, government, and Christmas gift-giving. Institutions provide the rules and guidelines needed to carry out the day-to-day activities of our lives. Institutions provide the crucial structure of a society and the framework within which economic activity takes place. Without institution structure, anarchy would prevail. With the rules, though, come rigidities that can prevent resources from being allocated efficiently.

     See also | market | government | allocation | resources | efficiency | union | government functions | business | corporation | private property | money |

INSTITUTION, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: April 20, 2026].

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An actual outlay or expenses incurred in the production of a good that shows up in a firm's accounting statements and records. Accounting cost is an explicit payment (that is, money changing hands) incurred by a firm. Accounting cost, while very important to accountants, company CEOs, shareholders, and the Internal Revenue Service, is only minimally important to economists. The reason is that economists are more interested in economic cost (also called opportunity cost), which is the value of foregone production.

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