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time. This collective learning "consists of those experiences that havepassed the slow test of time and are embodied in our language, institutions,teehnology, and ways of doing things" 6 . From this perspective,North asserts his main argument as follows: "It is cluture that providesthe key to path dependence-a term used to describe the prowerful influenceof the past on the present and future. The current learning of anygeneration takes place within the context of the perceptions derived fromcollective learning. Learning then is an incremental process fıltered bythe culture of a society vvhich determines the perceived payoffs, but thereis no guarantee that the cumulative past experience of a society vvill necessarilyfit it to solve nevv problems. Societies that get 'stuck' embody beliefsystems and institutions that fail to confront and solve nevv problemsof societal complexity". Accordingly, "incentives embodied in belief systemsas expressed in institutions (i.e. formal and informal rules and constraintsof human interaction, S.A.B.) determine economic performancethrough time" 7 .After founding the eminent impact of culture on the path dependenceof an economy, North refuses the conventional concept of allocative efficierıcyas an appropriate criterion of successful economic grovvth. In hisvievv, "it is adaptive rather than allocative efficiency vvhich is the key tolong-run grovvth. Successful political/economic systems have evolvedflexible institutional structures that can survive the shocks and changesthat are part of successful evolution 8 . But again, it is the culture vvhichbrings about the adaptive efficiency of economies and their long-run performance.In the vvords of North, "these systems have been a product oflong gestation. We do not knovv hovv to create adaptive efficiency in theshort run" 9 .North's conceptualization of the impact of culture on path dependenceand adaptive efficiency of economies may be vievved as a paramountassault on mainstream economic theory since it implies refusal toaccept the concept of allocative efficiency as the key instrument of thattheory. On the other hand, North has been avvarded the Nobel Prize in Economics"for having renevved research in economic history". Therefore,his vvork certainly marks the beginning of a cultural turn in the reasoningof mainstream economists, and it has pioneered theoretical and empiricalstudies in this line vvhich focus on many topics, such as the role of culturein the emergence and perpetuation of distinct institutional and organizationaltrajectories 10 , the formal and informal institutional foundations of6. Douglass C. North, "Economic Performance...", p. 364.7. Ibid.8. Ibid., p.367.9. Ibid.10. Avner Greif, "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical andTheoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies", Journal of PoliticalEconomy, Vol. 102, No. 2 (October 1994), pp. 912-950.763