We explore why authority within firms helps trading parties immediately settle ex post adaptation problems despite the possibility of a subordinate's disobedience to the orders of his boss. By employing three crucial behavioral assumptions (reference-dependent preference, self-serving bias, and...

How can integrated firms immediately settle ex post adaptations to unanticipated disturbances? While this question is crucial to the understanding of transaction cost economics (TCE), TCE has not provided any formal answer. This paper develops a model that explores this question by employing...