Specialization and Economic Organization

Introduction. Economies and Diseconomies of Specialization. Analytical Frameworks of Economics. Economies of Specialization and Transaction Costs. The Pricing Mechanism and Ex Post Transaction Costs. Economies and Diseconomies of Information Asymmetry. Rethinking Trade Theory and Development Economics. Why and How International Trade Emerges from Domestic Trade. Emergence of Professional Middlemen and Urbanization. Endogenous Evolution of the Division of Labor. Concurrent Increases in Specialization and Consumption Variety. Rethinking Theory of the Firm and Economics of Property Rights. Why and How Firms Emerge from the Division of Labor. Function of the Market in Searching for Efficient Contractural Arrangements. The Extent of the Market and Rights Specified in a Contract vs. Rights to Contracting. Specialization and Hierarchical Structures of the Division of Labor. Emergence of New Producer Goods and Related New Technology. Economies of Roundaboutness and Industrialization. Efficient Hierarchy and the Division of Labor. Complicated Dynamic Mechanisms Generating Endogenous Evolution of the Division of Labor. Entrepreneurship, Investment, and Experiments with Economic Organizations. Concurrently Endogenous Evolution of Specialization, Firms, and Product Diversity. Empirical Evidence and Rethinking Macroeconomics. Why and How Money Emerges from the Division of Labor. The Division of Labor, Business Cycles and Unemployment. Testing the Theories in this Volume against Empirical Observations. Epilogue. References. Index.