NLIC.org

Willard Said:

Is there a difference between financial institutions and economic institutions?

We Answered:

Sorry; I have never heard the term "economic institutions" I'll see what I can learn.

Here’s one definition, but it seems pretty loosey-goosey
http://www.econlib.org/library/Topics/Hi…
These sites seem to think they are the organizations that study economics:
http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.inst.all.…
http://cei.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/English/about…
These sites seems to think they are any institution that is not either a social or a political institution”
http://www.businessdictionary.com/defini…
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/groups/pubs…
http://www.museumofmoney.org/babylon/
http://www.nber.org/papers/w10481
And here’s some that seem to know that that phrase must mean something, but aren’t terribly sure exactly what it might be
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_ap…
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Urban-Studies-…
http://econ.worldbank.org/external/defau…

Well, that phrase looks like another one of those combinations of words that seems like it ought to mean something real, without forcing the user to be pinned down to much of anything specific. These sorts of things are really popular with academics and politicos, but doesn’t seem to be of much use to the general populace.