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Contracting with contracts: How the Japanese manage organizational transactions

Smitka, Michael J.

This book seeks to pull together two approaches to institutions, those of law and organizational theory. As an economist, I stand somewhat apart from both of those approaches. Within economics, law on the one hand is presumed to provide an essential support for "market" transactions, but the nature of that support is seldom specified. On the other hand, organizational studies focus upon "hierarchy," the locus of most day-to-day economic activity in the U.S. Economics, however, typically treats organizations as a black box that is best left unopened. Here my focus is on the presumed centrality of contract law, drawing upon empirical work on the Japanese auto industry.

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Academic Units
Center on Japanese Economy and Business
Publisher
Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University
Series
Center on Japanese Economy and Business Working Papers, 74
Published Here
February 8, 2011