Synopses & Reviews
Contributors celebrate Loasby's contribution to economics and extend his work in the area of the theory of the firm and related methodological issues. They consider the existence and nature of firms and their internal and external relations, paying special attention to coordination and communication costs. Discussion moves on to knowledge creation and use, questions of organization, and methodological issues such as rationality and equilibrium. Includes detailed empirical investigation of high technology industries. Many chapters are derived from papers presented at an August 1997 conference.
Table of Contents
What can an economist learn from managing a business? / G.B. Richardson -- Information costs, protocols and the boundaries of the firm / Mark Casson and Nigel Wadeson -- Incomplete contracts and economic organization : Brian Loasby and the theory of the firm / Nicolai J. Foss -- Loasby and decisions : a non-Coasian perspective on the nature of the firm / Neil M. Kay -- Three stories about the computer industry and the relevance of the Loasbian view of the firm / Martin Fransman -- The changing nature of corporate technological diversification and the importance of organizational capability / Felicia Fai and John Cantwell -- Divisions of labour in the innovating firm / Keith Pavitt -- The methodological implications of past Marshallian economics / John H. Finch -- The bounds of rationality : reflections on the economic representation of rationality in the late twentieth century / Kenneth C. Cleaver -- Bounded rationality, 'fundamental' uncertainty and the firm in the long run / Stephen P. Dunn -- The growth of knowledge and the subjective probability approach / Maurizio Caserta -- Disequilibrium states and adjustment processes : towards a historical-time analysis of behaviour under uncertainty / Giuseppe Fontana and Bill Gerrard -- Equilibrium and incommensurability / Christopher Torr -- Economics, the state and the state of economics / Richard H. Day -- Choice, complexity and connections / Jason Potts -- Concluding reflections / Brian J. Loasby.