This work presents contributions from leading economists, including Ronald Coase, Douglass North, Masahiko Aoki, Oliver E. Williamson, and Harold Demsetz, and demonstrates the extent of the New Institutional Economics research programme. It lays out the fundamental dimensions of the research programme, placing emphasis on the interaction between institutional factors, both formal and informal, and the performance of different arrangements that organize transactions. It presents conflicting and perhaps controversial views on the sources of growth, placing special emphasis on organizations and...

Ronald H. Coase was one of the most innovative and provocative economists of the twentieth century. Besides his best known papers on 'The Nature of the Firm' and 'The Problem of Social Cost', he had a major role in the development of the field of law and economics, and made numerous influential contributions to topics including public utilities, regulation and the functioning of markets. In this comprehensive Companion, 31 leading economists, social scientists and legal scholars assess the impact of his work with particular reference to the research programs initiated, the influence on...