Showing papers by "Oliver E. Williamson published in 2015"
TL;DR: This paper outlined the contributions of Ronald Harry Coase (1910−2013) to institutional economics, noting his insistence on the importance of studying real world institutions and his personal contribution as an institution builder.
Abstract: This essay outlines the contributions of Ronald Harry Coase (1910–2013) to institutional economics, noting his insistence on the importance of studying real world institutions and his personal contribution as an institution builder.
10 citations
07 Jun 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, transaction cost economics is defined as the means by which a firm produces a good or service to its own needs rather than outsource it to a third party rather than outsourcing it.
Abstract: The research program on which I and others have been working has been variously described as the “economics of governance,” the “economics of organization,” and “transaction cost economics.” As discussed in Section 1, governance is the overarching concept and transaction cost economics is the means by which to breathe operational content into governance and organization. The specific issue that drew me into this research project was the puzzle posed by Ronald Coase in 1937: What efficiency factors determine when a firm produces a good or service to its own needs rather than outsource? As described in Section 2, my 1971 paper on “The Vertical Integration of Production” made headway with this issue and invited follow-on research that would eventually come to be referred to as transaction cost economics. The rudiments of transaction cost economics are set out in Section 3. Puzzles and challenges that arose and would require “pushing the logic of efficient governance to completion” are examined brief ly in Section 4. Concluding remarks follow.
2 citations