Issues such as the patentability of scientific ideas, the market for organs and open source software are hotly debated and yet poorly understood. In particular, there is a great need for sound economic theorizing on such issues.

There is also a need for a clear and concise exposition of the state-of-the-art of the economics of property rights. This book fulfils these various needs.

The book enhances current economic understanding of the firm as an institution and an organization, looking beyond the narrow boundaries of neoclassical economics to an interdisciplinary approach based on accounting and law as well as economics itself. It represents the first synthesis of the authors' research work on the subject and provides the groundwork for the development of a comprehensive framework centred on the firm as an entity.

The volume starts with a synthesis and a critique of the current state of the different economic theories of the firm and further develops...

Now, for the first time, there is a comprehensive, eminently readable book designed to focus thinking in the area of contract law. This book bridges the gap between law and economics by confronting normative values that economists too often deem the preserve of moral philosophers. Contract theorists, on the other hand, are seldom in sympathy with economic efficiency norms. While free bargaining continues to be regarded with suspicion by legal scholars who are hostile to private ordering, the proper scope of free bargaining remains in dispute. Combined with a recent renewed interest in this...

Now, for the first time, there is a comprehensive, eminently readable book designed to focus thinking in the area of contract law. This book bridges the gap between law and economics by confronting normative values that economists too often deem the preserve of moral philosophers. Contract theorists, on the other hand, are seldom in sympathy with economic efficiency norms. While free bargaining continues to be regarded with suspicion by legal scholars who are hostile to private ordering, the proper scope of free bargaining remains in dispute. Combined with a recent renewed interest in this...

This book addresses the fundamental issues underlying the debate over electric power regulation and deregulation. After decades of the presumption that the electric power industry was a natural monopoly, recent times have seen a trend of deregulation followed by panicked re-regulation. This important book critically analyses this controversial area from a legal and economic perspective.

This is the first book to examine individual rights from an economic perspective, collecting together leading articles in this emerging area of interest and showing the vibrant and expanding scholarship that relates them. Areas covered include

• The implications of constitutional protections of individual rights and freedoms, including freedom of speech and of the press,
• The right to bear arms,
• The right against unreasonable searches,
• The right against self-incrimination,
• The...

This book is the outcome of a workshop at Michigan State University on the career of A. Allan Schmid offering a collection of original essays that explore several approaches to understanding the impact of alternative legal-economic institutions.