Capitalist Economic System: On Corporate Contracts and Market Contracts

Author: Williamson (USA), Duan Yicai, Wang Wei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: In this book, the authors specifically examine various major economic systems of capitalism, including market organizations and market restrictions, work organizations, trade unions, modern corporations, corporate governance structures, monopoly and antitrust, and government regulation, among others. They reduce each economic system to a special contract, where before the contract is signed, it is a transaction; after the contract is signed, it is governance. Therefore, the entire book takes contracts as its research subject. The purpose of studying contracts is to improve the efficiency of governance and the efficiency of the system, and from the efficiency of the system to the efficiency of the entire economy. Based on this analysis, the authors draw two arguments. First, using simple governance structures to solve complex transaction problems will only complicate matters. Second, different transaction attributes require different governance structures, as well as different organizational costs and powers.