Economics Social Institutions

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. The Economic Tradition

   • Hans Albert

   Pages 1-27

3. Milton Friedman in Our Time

   • Karl Brunner

   Pages 29-39

4. Development Economics: Intellectual Barbarism

   • P. T. Bauer

   Pages 41-58

5. A Hobbesian Interpretation of the Rawlsian Difference Principle

   • James M. Buchanan

   Pages 59-77

6. Galbraithian Economics

   • Gérard Gäfgen

   Pages 79-104

7. “Economics and the Public Purpose”

   • Hans G. Monissen

   Pages 105-129

8. The Capitalist Corporation and the Socialist Firm

   • Svetozar Pejovich

   Pages 131-161

9. Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure

   • Michael C. Jensen, William H. Meckling

   Pages 163-231

10. Some Implications of Recognition of Property Right Transactions Costs

    • Armen A. Alchian

    Pages 233-254

11. The Antitrust Dilemma

    • Harold Demsetz

    Pages 255-265

12. Toward a Theory of the Press

    • Michael C. Jensen

    Pages 267-287

The productive work of widely distributed academic research has contributed substantially, over the postwar period, to important advances in our understanding. It has also offered a clearer recognition of many unresolved problems. Never­ theless, the progress achieved over the last decades, ex­ hibited by the systematic application of "theory" to actual issues and observable problems, could not overcome a per­ vasive sense of dissatisfaction. Some academic endeavors pursued within a traditional range of economic analysis have appeared increasingly remote from broad social issues, motivating the social and intellectual unrest experienced in recent years. Conditioned by the traditional use of economic analysis, many have naturally concluded that the "most relevant" social issues agitating our times are beyond the reach of economics. Purist advocates of a traditional view thus condemn any extension of economic analysis to social issues as an escape into "ideology". Others argue the need for an "interdisciplinary approach" involving sociology, social psychology, or anthropology as necessary strands in a useful understanding of social, institutional, and human problems of contemporary societies. We note here, in par­ ticular, the subtle attraction inherent in Marxian thought. It appears to offer a unified approach, with a coherent inter­ pretation, to all matters and aspects of human society, in­ cluding even nature.

• Marx
• development
• development economics
• economics
• economy
• efficiency
• institutions
• political economy
• research
• science and technology
• social psychology
• theory of the firm
• trust

• Center for Research in Government Policy and Business, Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester, USA

  Karl Brunner

• Universität Bern, Switzerland

  Karl Brunner

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