This article explores different analytical approaches to institutions in economic theory and history. The first part shows how mainstream economics embraced this theme and the influence this new analytical approach had on the New Economic History. The second part analyzes some heterodox tendencies, such as the theory of conventions, the school of regulation and the recent developments of economic sociology related to the work of Mark Granovetter and Pierre Bordieu. Regarding history, these developments have found support in the school of Annales, and the formulations of Marx and postkeynesian economists.