The Nature of the Firm: Origins, Evolution, and Development - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195065905 ISBN 13: 9780195065909

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1991

Synopsis

In 1937 Ronald H. Coase published a classic paper, "The Nature of the Firm." This classic study is discussed by Oliver E. Williamson and Sidney G. Winter as they address a topic of increasing importance in the field of economics: what is the nature of the firm in economic analysis? The study examines the impact on a firm's organization of the costs associated with producing and selling products.

About this title

About the Author

Oliver E. Williamson is a highly distinguished business economist and the author or editor of several books and articles, most famous being Markets and Hierarchies (The Free Press, New York, 1975). He recently edited another book for Oxford, Organizational Theory: From Chester Barnard to the Present and Beyond (1990). He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania (1965-77), Yale University (1983-8), the University of Warwick (1973), the University of Kyoto (1983), Harvard University (1987), Indiana University (1987). He has also delivered lectures at a wide range of universities, including, in Europe Lund and Madrid Univeristies. He is on the Editorial Boards of several journals: Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; Journal of Economic Organization; Journal of Japanese and International Economics; Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance; Organization Studies; Regulation; Organization Science; and Cambridge Surveys of Economic Literature. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society. Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991 for achieving a `breakthrough in understanding the institutional structure of the economy'. He taught at the London School of Economics from 1935-51, where he produced `The Nature of the Firm' (1937), which has had a profound effect on economists. He is well known to economists for the Coase Theorem, which he presented in a pathbreaking paper in 1960. He comes from Middlesex, but emigrated to America and he has held posts at the University of Chicago Law School for several years. Oliver D. Hart, who recently delivered the Clarendon Lectures in Economics at Oxford, is at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as is Paul L. Joskow. Benjamin Klein is at the University of California, Los Angeles; Scott E. Masten is at the University of Michigan; and Sherwin Rosen is at the University of Chicago.

Review

"Our advice to anyone interested in organizations and organization theory is don't miss this book. It includes some of the past, present, and future of a major line of thought regarding the nature of the firm. It is an important contribution to the expanding interest in organization theory."--Journal of Management

"Particularly timely given Coase's receipt of the 1991 Nobel Prize for economics....For students and noneconomists, the volume provides an accessible route into the now enormous literature on economic organization....Specialists, on the other hand, will find ample grist for their analytical mills."--Business History Review

"The evolution of the theory is interesting, several important issues are discussed, and the suggestions for future research are illuminating. For those not familiar with this literature, the book provides a clear exposition of its origins and key ideas."--Business History

"Many of the papers are exccellent. The book is accessible to advanced undergraduates and graduate students and valuable for specialists in the field. It is that rare conference volume which is interesting, enlightening, and important."--Journal of Economic Literature

"A lively debate on economic approaches to the firm....It is unlikely that there is a better book than this one for understanding what the economics mainstream and periphery have to say today on the organization and governance of the firm."--Administrative Science Quarterly

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195065905
• ISBN 13: 9780195065909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Williamson Oliver E., Winter Sidney G.