This article introduces the special issue on climate adaptation and
institutions. Economic accounts of climate adaptation have stressed its
collective action nature and the limitations of standard economic
approaches to the matter. Governance accounts, on their part, have shown
that adaptation does not always happen when it is expected. Against
this background, institutional economics has the potential to shed light
on those societal processes and collective mechanisms leading to and
shaping adaptation (or the absence of it). The selection of articles
contributing to this special issue shows that climate adaptation can
indeed be explored successfully through institutional economics, and
that doing so fits well within the institutional economics agenda. Some
recommendations for future research are provided at the end.