Customer Reviews

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

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This book serves as an excellent introduction to the transaction cost motivated theories of the firm. The whole field started with the 1937 paper by Coase, which one can find here. Three other papers by Coase give a good background on how he came to write that paper and what its implications and influences are. His Nobel lecture is also included. They all make a nice reading and clear up some misunderstandings about Coase's work. Coase is an excellent writer.

The other papers are very good too. I especially liked the one by Harold Demsetz. It points out that there are some important shortcomings to the transactionialist view and outlines a alternative theory of the firm.

Almost all papers can be read without much knowledge about economics and without math, so anyone with an interest in the topic should take a look.

The papers imprinted there include Coase's "The Nature of the Firm" and his Nobel Lecture as well. The works of O. Williamson, O. Hart, S. Rosen, S. Winter, etc on the nature of the firm are also there.

One thing worth to note is that three of the papers are the lectures given by Coase in the 1987 conference (which is due to the 50th anniversery of the publication of his "The Nature of the Firm") are also included. The sub-title of this book speaks for itself.

But I don't know why Cheung's "The Contractual Nature of the Firm" is omitted.