Inside the black box: compensation structures of efficient Yugoslavian firms (original) (raw)

A Brief Prehistory of the Theory of the Firm

A Brief Prehistory of the Theory of the Firm, 2018

Preface and acknowledgements v A note on the numbering of equations, tables and figures xv 1 Background 1 Chapter notes 8 References 9 2 The division of labour and the firm 13 2.1 Ancient philosophers 13 2.2 Medieval period 14 2.3 Pre-classical economics period 16 2.4 19th century 18 2.5 20th century 25 Chapter notes 37 References 39 3 Development of a theory of production or the firm 43 3.1 Pre-classical economists 43 3.2 The classical economics period 46 3.2.1 The proto-neoclassicals 48 3.3 The neoclassical era 62 3.3.1 Behavioural and managerial models 86 3.3.2 Contemporary criticisms of the neoclassical model 90 3.3.3 Coase versus Demsetz on the neoclassical model 93 3.3.4 Profit maximisation 95 3.4 Malmgren (1961) 96 Chapter notes 101 References 111 4 Possible reasons for the neglect of the firm 127 Chapter notes 134 References 135 xvii

Why economics must abandon its theory of the firm

Economics Complex Windows, 2015

The Marshallian theory of the firm contains previously unrecognised mathematical contradictions which render the theory meaningless. Perfect competition and the welfare ideal of price equal to marginal cost are incompatible with profit maximising behaviour, the comparison of a competitive industry to a monopoly is invalid, and the static profit maximisation principle is false in a dynamic setting. Economics must abandon the theoretical analysis of production based on diminishing marginal productivity, and instead build an empirical microeconomics based on the substantial literature on the behaviour of actual firms.

5610 THE THEORY OF THE FIRM

This chapter is a survey of modern theories of the firm. We categorize these as belonging either to the principal-agent or the incomplete contracting approach. In the former category fall, for example, the Alchian and Demsetz moral hazard in teams theory as well as Holmstrøm and Milgrom's theory of the firm as an incentive system. Belonging to the incomplete contracting branch are theories that stress the importance of the employment relationship (for example, Coase and Simon) as an adaptation mechanism, theories that stress the importance of ownership of assets for affecting incentives when contracts must be renegotiated (Williamson, Grossman and Hart, Hart and Moore), and some recent work on implicit contracts (Baker, Gibbons and Murphy). We argue that these different perspectives on the firm should be viewed as complementary rather than as mutually exclusive and that a synthesis seems to be emerging. JEL classification: K22, L22

Theory of the Firm

Economics and Philosophy, 1994

This chapter is a survey of modern theories of the firm. We categorize these as belonging either to the principal-agent or the incomplete contracting approach. In the former category fall, for example, the Alchian and Demsetz moral hazard in teams theory as well as Holmstrøm and Milgrom's theory of the firm as an incentive system. Belonging to the incomplete contracting branch are theories that stress the importance of the employment relationship (for example, Coase and Simon) as an adaptation mechanism, theories that stress the importance of ownership of assets for affecting incentives when contracts must be renegotiated (Williamson, Grossman and Hart, Hart and Moore), and some recent work on implicit contracts (Baker, Gibbons and Murphy). We argue that these different perspectives on the firm should be viewed as complementary rather than as mutually exclusive and that a synthesis seems to be emerging. JEL classification: K22, L22