The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics

323 Pages·2010·0.8 MB·English

by  Peter G. Klein

THE ELGAR COMPANION TO
TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS

The Elgar Companion to
Transaction Cost Economics
Edited by
Peter G. Klein
Associate Professor, Division of Applied Social Sciences and
Associate Director, Contracting and Organizations Research
Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA
and
Michael E. Sykuta
Associate Professor, Division of Applied Social Sciences and
Director, Contracting and Organizations Research Institute,
University of Missouri, Columbia, USA
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Peter G. Klein and Michael E. Sykuta 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this pub li ca tion may be repro duced, stored
in a retrieval system or trans mit ted in any form or by any means, elec tronic,
mechanical or photo cop y ing, record ing, or oth er wise without the prior
permission of the pub lisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A cat a logue record for this book
is avail able from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009941001
ISBN 978 1 84542 766 5
Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK
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Contents
List of contributors vii
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Editors’ introduction 3
Peter G. Klein and Michael E. Sykuta
2 Transaction cost economics: an overview 8
Oliver E. Williamson
3 Transaction cost economics and the new institutional
economics 27
Peter G. Klein
PART II PRECURSORS AND INFLUENCES
4 Ronald H. Coase 39
Michael E. Sykuta
5 Cyert, March, and the Carnegie school 49
Mie Augier
6 Chester Barnard 58
Joseph T. Mahoney
7 Commons, Hurst, Macaulay, and the Wisconsin legal tradition 66
D. Gordon Smith
8 F.A. Hayek 74
Peter G. Klein
9 Herbert Simon 85
Saras Sarasvathy
10 Property rights economics 92
Nicolai J. Foss
PART III FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS
11 The costs of exchange 107
Alexandra Benham and Lee Benham
12 Asset specifi city and holdups 120
Benjamin Klein
13 The transaction as the unit of analysis 127
Nicholas Argyres
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vi The Elgar companion to transaction cost economics
14 Bounded rationality and organizational economics 133
Nicolai J. Foss
15 Economizing and strategizing 140
Jackson A. Nickerson and James C. Yen
16 Empirical methods in transaction cost economics 152
Michael E. Sykuta
PART IV APPLICATIONS
17 Vertical integration 165
Peter G. Klein
18 Hybrid organizations 176
Claude Ménard
19 Franchising 185
Steven C. Michael
20 The structure of franchise contracts 194
Emmanuel Raynaud
21 Strategy and transaction costs 205
Laura Poppo
22 Labour economics and human resource management 215
Bruce A. Rayton
23 The Chicago school, transaction cost economics, and antitrust 230
Joshua D. Wright
24 Financial- market contracting 244
Dean V. Williamson
PART V ALTERNATIVES AND CRITIQUES
25 Critiques of transaction cost economics: an overview 263
Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein
26 Subjectivism, understanding, and transaction costs 273
Fu- Lai Tony Yu
27 Austrian economics and the theory of the fi rm 281
Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein
28 Limits of transaction cost analysis 297
Geoff rey M. Hodgson
Index 307
Contributors
Nicholas Argyres is Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Strategy
at the Olin Business School, Washington University, St Louis, USA.
Mie Augier is a Research Associate Professor at the Navy Postgraduate
School, Monterey, California.
Alexandra Benham is a Founder and the Secretary of the Ronald Coase
Institute, St Louis, USA.
Lee Benham is Professor of Economics at Washington University, St
Louis, and a Board Member of the Ronald Coase Institute, St Louis,
USA.
Nicolai J. Foss is Professor and Director of the Centre for Strategic
Management and Globalization at the Copenhagen Business School,
Denmark and a Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics and
Business Administration, Norway.
Geoff rey M. Hodgson is Research Professor in Business Studies at the
University of Hertfordshire, UK.
Benjamin Klein is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of
California, Los Angeles, USA.
Peter G. Klein is Associate Professor in the Division of Applied Social
Sciences, University of Missouri, and Associate Director of the Contracting
and Organizations Research Institute, USA.
Joseph T. Mahoney is Investors in Business Education Professor of
Strategy and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Business
Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA.
Claude Ménard is Professor of Economics and Senior Researcher at
the Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne (CES) at the University Paris
(Panthéon-Sorbonne), France.
Steven C. Michael is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the
Department of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, USA.
Jackson A. Nickerson is Frahm Family Professor of Organization and
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viii The Elgar companion to transaction cost economics
Strategy at the Olin Business School, Washington University, St Louis,
USA.
Laura Poppo is Professor and Fred Ball Faculty Fellow in Business at the
University of Kansas, USA.
Emmanuel Raynaud is Research Fellow at the French National Institute
for Agronomical Research (INRA) and member of the Centre d’Economie
de la Sorbonne (CES), University of Paris I, France.
Bruce A. Rayton is Lecturer in Business Economics at the University of
Bath Management School, UK.
Saras Sarasvathy is Isadore Horween Research Associate Professor of
Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School
of Business, USA.
D. Gordon Smith is Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum and Glen
L. Farr Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham
Young University, USA.
Michael E. Sykuta is Associate Professor in the Division of Applied Social
Sciences, University of Missouri, and Director of the Contracting and
Organizations Research Institute, USA.
Dean V. Williamson is Research Economist at the US Department of
Justice, Antitrust Division, Washington, DC, USA.
Oliver E. Williamson is Professor of the Graduate School and Edgar
F. Kaiser Professor Emeritus of Business, Economics, and Law at the
University of California, Berkeley, USA and 2009 Nobel Laureate in
Economics.
Joshua D. Wright is Associate Professor of Law at George Mason
University School of Law and Department of Economics, USA.
James C. Yen is Doctoral Candidate in Organization and Strategy at the
Olin Business School, Washington University, St Louis, USA.
Fu-L ai Tony Yu is Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance,
Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong.
PART I
INTRODUCTION