Markets, Firms and Property Rights: A Celebration of the Research of Ronald Coase (Dec 4-5, 2009) (Photo credit: k-ideas)
As part of pursuing my “business detox” research agenda, I have tried to pay due attention to the work of economist Ronald Coase who developed the first theories on “why firms exist”. As The Economist newspaper explains in their recent obituary for Ronald Coase:
As he watched American car plants in action, he realised that the existence of the firm compensated for a critical flaw in the price-setting mechanism. In the real world it is often costly for buyer and seller to arrive at a final price. “Transaction costs”, like the need to negotiate or draw up contracts, prevent the price mechanism from working smoothly. Firms would exist, he reckoned, when it was cheaper and easier to co-ordinate activity within a centrally planned organisation than to spell out contract details for…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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