Showing papers by "Oliver E. Williamson published in 2017"
08 Sep 2017
TL;DR: The New Institutional Economics holds out the prospect that the study of economic organization will benefit from a richer dialogue between economists and sociologists as discussed by the authors, and discusses functionalist modes of explanation and illustrates a successful application of functionalism in the social sciences.
Abstract: This chapter examines rudiments of transaction cost economics. It also examines some sociological critiques of the transaction cost economics approach. The New Institutional Economics holds out the prospect that the study of economic organization will benefit from a richer dialogue between economists and sociologists. Economists more readily impute high-powered cognitive capacities to human agents than do other social scientists. Economists again find themselves addressing many phenomena identical to those of interest to sociologists. The chapter discusses functionalist modes of explanation and illustrates a "successful" application of functionalism in the social sciences. Sociologists may place greater emphasis on the limits of rationality and some may reserve judgment on economizing. Charles Perrow's critique of transaction cost economics is unique. Transaction cost economics adopts the view advanced by John R. Commons in the 1930s that the transaction is the basic unit of analysis. Paul Samuelson once remarked that "many economists would separate economics from sociology on the basis of rational or irrational behavior".
31 citations