Showing papers by "Oliver E. Williamson published in 1995"

Transaction Cost Economics

Abstract: Torganization by selectively joinin gl aw, economics, and organization theory. As against neoclassical economics, which is predominantly concerned with price and output, relies extensively on marginal analysis, an dd escribes the firm as a production function (whic hi s a technological construction), transaction cost economics (TCE) is concerned with the allocation of economic activity across alternative modes of organization (markets, firms, bureaus, etc.), employs discrete structural analysis, an dd escribes the firm as a governance structure (which is an organizational construction). Real differences notwithstanding, orthodoxy and TCE are in many ways complements—one being more wellsuited to aggregation in the context of simple market exchange, the other being more well-suited to the microanalytics of complex contracting and nonmarket organization. Ib egin by contrasting the lens of contract (out of which TCE works) with the lens of choice (orthodoxy). Vertical integration, which is the paradigm problem for TCE, i st hen examined .T he operationalization of TCE is discusse di n Section 3. Variations on a theme are sketched in Section 4. Public policy is discussed in Section 5. Concluding remarks follow.

Organization Theory: From Chester Barnard to the Present and Beyond

Abstract: This collection of papers is edited by renowned business thinker Oliver Williamson, who is currently Transamerica Professor of Corporate Strategy at the School of Business Administration at Berkeley The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Chester I Barnard's remarkable and still influential book, The Functions of the Executive, was celebrated with a seminar series at the University of California, Berkeley in the Spring of 1988 Eight of those lectures are published here The contributors include organization specialists and sociologists (Barbara Levitt and James March; W Richard Scott; Glenn Carroll; Jeffrey Pfeffer), an anthropologist, a political scientist, and two economists (Mary Douglas; Terry Moe; Oliver Hart; Oliver Williamson) An important contribution to organization theory, this volume reports on recent progress in this field, and projects a productive research future

Hierarchies, Markets and Power in the Economy : An Economic Perspective

Abstract: This paper adopts the transaction cost economics perspective for purposes of examining hierarchies, markets, and power in the economy. Transaction cost economics works out of an economizing perspective in which markets and hierarchies are alternative modes of governance and the object is to ascertain which transactions go where and why. The role of power in this setup is strictly limited--partly because power tends to be myopic (transactions are not examined 'in their entirety') and partly because it is tautological. Power needs to be operationalized, whereupon the refutable implications that accrue to this perspective can be derived. Copyright 1995 by Oxford University Press.

Transaction cost economics

Abstract: This important two volume set contains a selection of key articles on transaction cost economics by distinguished scholars including Ronald Coase, Herbert Simon, Kenneth Arrow and Richard A. Posner. As well as addressing key areas such as private ordering and credibility, contracts and organization, internal organization, vertical integration and contracting, the editors have each compiled a new introduction to accompany the set.