A few years ago, we participated in a conference in which core issues in the economics of institutions and organizations were discussed by academic economists (see the June 1993 issue of the Journal of Comparative Economics). We were struck then by the fact that norms, values, and the effects on these of historical processes were frequently mentioned during the paper sessions, yet were largely absent from the formal analyses of the papers. We noticed too that in casual conversations over meals, we found ourselves talking about problems such as crime, drug abuse, our declining sense of community, family instability, and the moral culture confronting our children, problems that seemed to be of great importance to our lives but that had little intersection with our economic analyses, though these purported to deal with the most basic institutional structures of society. Surely, we thought, how society organizes its economic life must have far-reaching consequences for such problems through its influence both on people's economic opportunities and incentives, and also on their normative attitudes and preferences. For instance, how much we invest in personal relationships may depend in part upon whether they promise dimensions of economic and physical security that are unavailable from the market and the state. But such investment decisions may also depend on how much we value the relationships in their own right, and on whether we believe that we can identify others who likewise do so. Both economic changes and changes in valuations and trust could alter our calculations, and one type of change may well impact upon the other.