Thinking about the Firm: A Review of Daniel Spulber's The Theory of the Firm
Abstract
In this review, I describe how economists have moved beyond the firm as a black box to incorporate incentives, internal organization, and firm boundaries. I then turn to the way that the theory of the firm is treated in Daniel Spulber's book The Theory of the Firm: Microeconomics with Endogenous Entrepreneurs, Firms, Markets, and Organizations . Spulber's goal is to explain why firms exist, how they are established, and what they contribute to the economy. To accomplish this, Spulber defines a firm to be a transaction institution whose objectives differ from those of its owners. For Spulber, this separation is the key difference between the firm and direct exchange between consumers. I raise questions about whether this is a useful basis for a theory of the firm. (JEL D21)Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal Journal of Economic Literature.
Volume (Year): 49 (2011)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 101-13
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jel.49.1.101
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Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Buehler, Stefan & Burghardt, Dirk, 2013. "Globalization and Vertical Structure: An Empirical Investigation," Economics Working Paper Series 1310, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
- Dimitri O. Ledenyov & Viktor O. Ledenyov, 2013. "On the theory of firm in nonlinear dynamic financial and economic systems," Papers 1302.6721, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2013.
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