Details

Subject(s)

• Institutional economics—History [Browse]
• Transaction costs [Browse]

Series

• Routledge studies in the history of economics. [More in this series]
• Routledge Studies in the History of Economics

Summary note

"Despite abundant literature on transaction costs, there is little to no in-depth analysis regarding what the transaction is or how it works. Drawing on both mainstream and heterodox literature and a variety of interdisciplinary sources, this monograph traces the history of transaction costs in institutional economics, mapping the topicality and use of the idea of transaction in institutional economics literature over time, explicating how historical context affects this idea. Vatiero treats the idea of 'transaction' as a construct with legal, competitive and political dimensions, and connects different approaches within institutional economics. The book covers the contributions of key thinkers from different schools, including Veblen, Coase, North, Williamson, Dixit. This book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, institutional economics, microeconomic theory, and law and economics"-- Provided by publisher.

Source of description

Description based on print version record.

Contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• The roadmap
• 1 Mapping the meaning of "transaction"
• 1.1. The ideas of transaction in Coase (1937) and (1960)
• 1.2. John Commons's formulation of transaction
• 1.3. Each transaction is "coercive" - the contribution of Robert Lee Hale to transactional theory
• 1.4. The "specific" transaction à la Williamson
• 2 The three dimensions of a transaction
• 2.1. The concept of transaction in the textbook perfect competition context
• 2.2. Introducing the legal dimension of a transaction
• 2.3. Introducing the competitive dimension of a transaction
• 2.4. Introducing the political dimension of a transaction
• 2.5. What should be next? Go back to the past
• 3 The legal dimension of transactions
• 3.1. The adversarial (or "positional") nature of legal positions
• 3.2. Positional goods: a primer
• 3.3. Freedom as a positional good
• 3.4. The inevitable costs of defining rights
• 4 The competitive dimension of transactions
• 4.1. The role of the outside market in the emergence of holdup risk
• 4.2. Oliver Hart's assignment of residual control rights
• 4.3. Oliver Williamson's fundamental transformation
• 4.4. The "trade-off" between Hart and Williamson: a reappraisal of the General Motors-Fisher Body case
• 4.5. The road ahead: reconciling Hart with Williamson
• 5 The political dimension of transactions
• 5.1. The political argument over corporate governance
• 5.2. The role of labour protection policies
• 5.3. The role of competition policies
• 5.4. The role of innovation policies
• 5.5. Blockholding and politics
• 6 Concluding remarks and one (just one, but remarkable) research proposal
• References
• Index.

Show 37 more Contents items

ISBN

• 0-429-20261-X
• 0-429-51465-4

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