The economics of transaction costs / edited by Oliver E. Williamson, Scott E. Masten.

Acknowledgements, vii -- Introduction / Oliver E. Williamson and Scott E. Masten, ix -- Part 1. Background -- The nature of the firm / R. H. Coase, 3 -- The vertical integration of production: market failure considerations / Oliver E. Williamson, 23 -- Production, information costs, and economic organization / Armen A. Alchian, Harold Demsetz, 35 Industrial organization: a proposal for research / R.H. Coase, 54 -- Part 2. Apparatus -- Vertical integration, appropriable rents, and the competitive contracting process / Benjamin Klein, Robert G. Grawford and Armen A. Alchian, 71 -- Comparative economic organization: the analysis of discrete structural alternatives / Oliver E. Williamson, 101 -- Credible commitments: using hostages to support exchange / Oliver E. Williamson, 129 -- The costs and benefits of ownership: a theory of vertical and lateral integration / Sanford J. Grossman, Oliver D. Hart, 151 -- The limits of firms: incentive and bureaucratic features / Oliver E. Williamson, 180 -- Multitask principal-agent analyses - incentive contracts, asset ownership, and the job design / Bengt Holmstrom, Paul Milgrom, 214 -- Part 3 Applications -- Integration of the sales force - an empirical examination / Erin Anderson, David C. Schmittlein, 245 -- The costs of organization / Scott E. Masten, James W. Meehan, Jr. and Edward A. Snyder, 256 -- Contract duration and relationship-specific investments: empirical evidence from coal markets / Paul L. Joskow, 281 -- Contracts and specific investment: an empirical test of transaction cost theory / Bruce R. Lyons, 299 -- Quantity and price adjustment in long-term contracts: a case study of petroleum coke / Victor P, Goldberg, John R. Erickson, 321 -- Efficient adaptation in long-term contracts: take-or-pay provisions for natural gas / Scott E. Masten, Keith J. Crocker, 351 -- The economics of block booking / Roy W. Kennedey, Benjamin Klein, 362 -- Franchise bidding for natural monopolies -in general and with respect to CATV / Oliver E. Williamson, 406 -- Regulation and administered contracts / Victor P. Goldberg, 438 -- The institutional foundations of regulatory commitment: a comparative analyses of telecommunications regulation / Brian Levy, Pablo T. Spiller, 461 -- The industrial organization of Congress: or, why legislatures, like Firs, are not organized as markets / Barry R. Weingast, William J. Marshall, 498 -- Name index, 531.