Markets, Organizations and Information

Markets, Organizations and Information: Beyond the Dichotomies of Industrial Organization discusses the functions of institutions in solving economic problems. The book is comprised of 12 chapters that tackle aspects of industrial organization. The first chapter discusses ways to approach industrial organization. Chapter 2 covers the growth of the business firm from a historical perspective. Chapter 3 discusses the development of an actual theory of the firm. Chapter 4 talks about the appropriation of benefits, and Chapter 5 tackles the risk and capital in an information failures network. The book also discusses the market-like behavior within the firm, and then covers joint costs and benefits. Firm-like behavior, allocative inefficiency, x-inefficiency, and corporate takeovers are also explained. The book then covers the economic role of marketing, the vertical integration, and the product life cycle. The last chapter covers the multinational firm. The text will be of great use to readers who have an interest in neo-institutional analysis.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Fresh Approaches to Industrial Organization

Chapter 2 The Growth of the Firm: A Historical Perspective

Chapter 3 Towards a Theory of the Firm

Chapter 4 The Appropriation of Benefits

Chapter 5 Risk and Capital in an Information Failures Framework

Chapter 6 Market-Like Behavior within the Firm

Chapter 7 Joint Costs and Joint Benefits: Allocating the Unallocatable

Chapter 8 Firm-Like Behavior

Chapter 9 Allocative Inefficiency, X-Inefficiency, and Corporate Takeovers

Chapter 10 The Economic Role of Marketing

Chapter 11 Vertical Integration and the Product Life Cycle

Chapter 12 The Multinational Firm

The Case Studies: Introduction

Case 1 Pressures for Internalization (Massey-Ferguson)

Case 2 Western Firms Face Difficulties in Contracting out

Case 3 Northern Telecom's Internal Markets

Case 4 The Banana Business

Case 5 The Nature of Rent: A Debate

Bibliography

Index