(E-book available via MyiLibrary) In even the most market-oriented economies, most economic transactions occur not in markets but inside managed organizations, particularly business firms. Organizational economics seeks to understand the nature and workings of such organizations and their impact on economic performance. The Handbook of Organizational Economics surveys the major theories, evidence, and methods used in the field. It displays the breadth of topics in organizational economics, including the roles of individuals and groups in organizations, organizational structures and processes, the boundaries of the firm, contracts between and within firms, and more.

Excerpt from Our Economic Organization This book has been prepared for those who are beginners in the study of economics, or who are making their first serious study of the business of social living. It is an attempt to describe the way in which we live and work with one another in modem life in our effort to gratify our wants. The material is an outgrowth of a considerable period of experience and experiment both with secondary school students and with beginners in university classes in economics. The book has been used successfully in mimeographed form in a variety of institutions and has in its present form the benefit of many suggestions from these sources. At the University of Chicago it has been used, with much supplementary material,. in a course for freshmen. This course is followed by one of equal length on value and distribution. In the minds of the authors, the distinguishing feature of the volume is the effort to depict social structures in terms of what they do. The functions, the uses, the work, of banks, of business organization, of competition, of specialization, of government, of scientific management, of education, and of the other multitudinous agencies which together make up our modern want-gratifying machine, are the matters with which the book is concerned. It is a study of the devices which exist in industrial society, primarily in terms of their activities, and, quite secondarily, in terms of their structures. The more experienced reader may be surprised that separate sections on value and distribution, which hold such central places in many texts, do not appear in this work. The authors believe that in an introductory work of the type here presented the violation, if any, is chiefly to tradition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A systematic treatment of the economics of the modern firm, this text draws on the insights of various areas in modern economics and other disciplines and presents the central problems in organizations of motivating people and co-ordinating their activities.

When originally released, Frank Hyneman Knight’s The Economic Organization revitalized the teaching of economic theory in America during the 1930s, laying the foundation for the price theory revolution led by economists emerging from Knight’s circle at The University of Chicago. Knight shows that when societies choose to allow market organization, their economy simultaneously solves the fundamental functions of valuation and efficiency. It also organizes the production and distribution of resources, providing incentives for progress. The Economic Organization provides a short introduction to the basic principles of supply, demand, and distribution that emerge from neoclassical price theory. The central role of the price mechanism in market organization is illustrated neatly by Knight’s "wheel of wealth"—the circular flow diagram most often identified with macroeconomic flows, but introduced here for price theoretic reasons. This version also includes his essay on "Utility and Cost," which provides a seamlessly integrated alternative-cost interpretation of neoclassical theory. This expanded edition of The Economic Organization includes a new introduction by Ross B. Emmett, which expands upon the short note on capital theory inserted in the original. Knight wrote three versions of the note for student use, and all three are included in the second chapter. Few books have changed the landscape of American economics and economic education as much as Knight’s The Economic Organization. This book should be read by all economists, historians, and policy makers.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

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