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This book brings together in one place the work of one of our most
respected economic theorists, on a field in which he has played a large
part in originating: the New Institutional Economics. Transaction cost
economics, which studies the governance of contractual relations, is the
branch of the New Institutional Economics with which Oliver Williamson
is especially associated.
Transaction cost economics takes issue
with one of the fundamental building blocks in microeconomics: the
theory of the firm. Whereas orthodox economics describes the firm in
technological terms, as a production function, transaction cost
economics describes the firm in organizational terms, as a governance
structure. Alternative feasible forms of organization--firms, markets,
hybrids, bureaus--are examined comparatively. The analytical action
resides in the details of transactions and the mechanisms of governance.
Transaction
cost economics has had a pervasive influence on current economic
thought about how and why institutions function as they do, and it has
become a practical framework for research in organizations by
representatives of a variety of disciplines. Through a transaction cost
analysis, The Mechanisms of Governance
shows how and why simple contracts give way to complex contracts and
internal organization as the hazards of contracting build up. That
complicates the study of economic organization, but a richer and more
relevant theory of organization is the result. Many testable
implications and lessons for public policy accrue to this framework.
Applications of both kinds are numerous and growing.
Written by one of the leading economic theorists of our time, The Mechanisms of Governance
is sure to be an important work for years to come. It will be of
interest to scholars and students of economics, organization,
management, and law.
About the Author:
Oliver E. Williamson is the Edgar F.
Kaiser Professor of Business, Professor of Economics, and Professor of
Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of
numerous works in which law, economics, and organization are joined.
UC Berkeley Professor Oliver Williamson wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics
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Product Details
- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
- (March 18, 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0195132602
- ISBN-13: 978-0195132601
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