The shortcomings of our health care system are increasingly evident, including the growing number of uninsured citizens, the difficulties for businesses in offering health insurance, and the effects of health and health care on the ability of individuals and families to maintain a decent standard of living.

Institutionalist Theory, Philosophy, and Methodology for Applied Research.- The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis: An Introduction.- The Economy as an Open System: An Institutionalist Framework for Economic Development.- The Social Fabric Matrix, the Principles of Institutional Adjustment, and Individual Action.- The Normative Matrix of Social Costs: Linking Hayden’s Social Fabric Matrix and Kapp’s Theory of Social Costs.- Convergence of the Social Fabric Matrix and Complex Modeling.- Tackling ‘Wicked’ Problems Holistically With Institutionalist Policymaking.- Normative Analysis of Instituted Processes.- Applications of the Social Fabric Matrix Approach.- The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Central Bank Operations: An Application to the Federal Reserve and the Recent Financial Crisis.- Microcredit and Reconstruction in Afghanistan: An Institutionalist Critique of Imported Development.- Utilization of the Social Fabric Matrix to Articulate a State System of Financial Aid for Public Schools and to Derive Conceptual Conclusions.- Application of the ithink ® System Dynamics Software Program to the Social Fabric Matrix to Analyze Public School Finance Systems.- Ceremonial Dimensions of Market-Based Pollution Control Instruments: The Clean Air Act and the Cap-and-Trade Model.- Service Access Rigidities in Rural Alaska.- Indian Agriculture in a Liberalized Landscape: The Interlocking of Science, Trade Liberalization, and State Policy.- Implementation of Analytical Devices and the Interactive Social Fabric Matrix Website.- Conclusion.- The Impact of the Social Fabric Matrix in Analysis and Policy Advice.

The Social Fabric Matrix Approach (SFM-A) is a rigorous and holistic methodology for undertaking policy-relevant, complex systems research. This book contains both extensive applications of the SFM-A to contemporary issues and chapters that embed applied research in relevant theoretical, philosophical, and methodological frameworks. It offers a balance of applications through case studies across regions and topics that span areas of finance, development, education, and environment, to name a few. This book creates new ways of using the SFM and forges previously unexplored connections between institutional economics and other areas of study such as financial markets, micro credit, political economy and sustainable development, thus contextually refining the SFM-A. This book complements F. Gregory Hayden’s Policymaking for a Good Society: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation. "Institutional Analysis and Praxis: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach… is interesting and thought-provoking.  The book should fill or create a good size niche in modeling the effects of economic and social institutions on development, in part because it includes values directly in the model." – Glen Atkinson, University of Nevada, Reno "The book is concerned with a demonstration of the methodological and analytical importance of the Social Fabric Matrix (SFM) and its application to a wide variety of real-world policy problems.  As such, it is the first book of its kind, drawing on the contributions of economic scholars who are doing pioneering work in the application of the SFM to economic policy problems.  It is, in short, a ground-breaking enterprise." – Paul Bush, CSU Fresno " [This book] offers a fresh perspective, as this is the first contribution that would underscore Hayden’s contribution… The editors have assembled one of the finest collections of contemporary Institutionalist thinkers thatappears to have been assembled." – John Hall, Portland State University

"Institutional Analysis and Praxis: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach… is interesting and thought-provoking.  The book should fill or create a good size niche in modeling the effects of economic and social institutions on development, in part because it includes values directly in the model." – Glen Atkinson, University of Nevada, Reno   "The book is concerned with a demonstration of the methodological and analytical importance of the Social Fabric Matrix (SFM) and its application to a wide variety of real-world policy problems.  As such, it is the first book of its kind, drawing on the contributions of economic scholars who are doing pioneering work in the application of the SFM to economic policy problems.  It is, in short, a ground-breaking enterprise." – Paul Bush, CSU Fresno   " [This book] offers a fresh perspective, as this is the first contribution that would underscore Hayden’s contribution… The editors have assembled one of the finest collections of contemporary Institutionalist thinkers that appears to have been assembled." – John Hall, Portland State University

Further employs SFM approach to a breadth of real-world problems with policy implications Case studies explore many current issues including poverty, microfinance, sustainable development, the mortgage crisis and educational systems Aims to create a new method for applied sciences in general, with applications in a variety of disciplines Features contributions by leading experts and rising stars in the field