| This dissertation examines the robustness of private institutions used to illicit good conduct where government is absent. I consider cases in which the threat of multilateral punishment in the context of repeated play---the traditional solution to problems that confront trade under anarchy---cannot support cooperation. These cases include the presence of large, socially heterogeneous populations, in which the information transmission mechanism required for reputation to work breaks down, and the presence of immobile, permanently weak individuals whose stationarity prevents them from successfully boycotting bad types and whose permanent weakness prevents them from defending themselves against permanently stronger agents. Despite the inability of multilateral punishment to secure cooperation under these conditions, I show how alternative mechanisms of self-enforcing exchange emerge to facilitate trade in these cases instead. I use historical examples ranging from medieval international trade to late pre-colonial Africa to illustrate my arguments. |
