Recommended readings (Machine generated): Williamson, Oliver E. and Scott E. Masten (1995), Transaction Cost Economics, Volume I: Theory and Concepts and Volume II: Policy and Applications, Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, VT, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd -- Williamson, Oliver E. (1985), 'The...

This chapter discusses the logic, hypotheses, empirical methods, and principal findings of the transaction-cost approach to economic organization as a foundation for analyzing the organization of agricultural transactions. In contrast to textbook characterizations of agriculture as the...

We analyze the capacities of communities (or social networks) and courts to secure cooperation among heterogeneous, impersonal transactors. We find that communities and courts are complementary in that they tend to support cooperation for different types of transactions but that the existence of...

This comprehensive and groundbreaking Handbook integrates economic and organization theories to help elucidate the design and evolution of economic organization. Economic organization is regarded both as a subject of inquiry and as an emerging disciplinary field in its own right, integrating...

In the standard durable goods-quality model, the prospect of repeat sales often supports the provision of high-quality durable goods. When durable goods require costly post-sale service, however, a reputational equilibrium may not exist at any price, even with a flow of profitable new sales...

This paper considers a class of contracts in which parties write detailed, long-term performance obligations that leave one or both parties with broad discretion to terminate the agreement on short notice with little or no penalty. I argue that formal contracts may be valuable, even where trade...

In this article we consider the ways in which the desire for efficient, low-cost adaptation to change influences the tradeoff between the design and duration of long-term contractual relationships. We examine the distortions in contract terms occasioned by nonprice competition for natural gas in...