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Title: The Firm, the Market, and the Law by Ronald H. Coase ISBN: 0-226-11101-6 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: February, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lucid essays on transaction costs and social welfare
Comment: This little book is a fantastic introduction to some of the powerful ideas introduced by Coase. Coase initiated two different ideas that today govern or inform much of the work of economists. The first was his introduction of the idea of "transaction costs", from an article suggesting an investigation into the root causes for industrial organization. The second is now known as the Coase Theorem, and stems from his insightful refutation of the Pigouvian view of social cost. There is also an article investigating the actual history of lighthouses in England, something which has usually been cited as a pure public good, and therefore requiring government provision. The history shows that most lighthouses - in some periods, all lighthouses - were privately provided. Coase's writing is lucid, his ideas profound, and his influence widespread. This collection is very important to anyone wanting to understand externalities, transaction costs, and social welfare.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant insight
Comment: Ronald Coase, though not an economist, in this book develops the rationale for the existence of firms (the reduction of transactions costs), an insight that has revolutionized the field of microeconomics since its publication (the original essay was published in the 1930s). He also touches on arguments related to monopolies (and when they should and should not be curbed by regulation). Despite the deep implications, it is written in an easily readable format.
Rating: 5
Summary: Some of the most important ideas in economics
Comment: This collection of seven of economist Ronald Coase's essays provides important understanding of the workings of market economies, the boundary between private and public, and what determines the size and structure of a firm. Coase distinguished his work from other economists by focusing on the role of transaction costs-now a common theme in discussions of the new economy. If you read only one of the chapters, it should be "The Nature of the Firm". Here Coase provides the intellectual foundations for strategic thinking about business architectures, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, and collaborative commerce. Some of this work was later elaborated on by Oliver Williamson (see his 1985 book, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism.) Like Joseph Schumpeter, Ronald Coase is an economist whose works from decades ago are now more relevant than ever. While Schumpeter's phrase "creative destruction" may be more memorable, in the end it is Coase's views on transaction costs and the nature of the firm that may be the more significant (and certainly more readable).
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Title: Essays on Economics and Economists by R. H. Coase ISBN: 0226111032 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: August, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Economic Intstitutions of Capitalism by Oliver E. Williamson ISBN: 068486374X Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance by Douglass C. North, Randall Calvert, Thrainn Eggertsson ISBN: 0521397340 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 26 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Nature of the Firm: Origins, Evolution, and Development by Oliver E. Williamson, Sidney G. Winter ISBN: 0195083563 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1993 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Structure and Change in Economic History by C. North Douglass, Douglass C. North ISBN: 039395241X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 1982 List Price(USD): $16.70 |
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