To Bring Flowers or Do a Runner: Gibberellins Make the Decision

Do people make environments or do environments make people?

This article discusses the influence of people's genetic make-up on their mental states of happiness and depression. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, great fortune does not guarantee happiness; neither does great misfortune assure depression. Emotional states are surprisingly immune to "objective" social circumstances. A biological basis for this relative immunity is that people possess bio...

What do i need to do to make an A?

17. The Make-or-Buy Decision: Lessons from Empirical Studies

The “transaction cost” theory of the firm introduced by Coase (1937) has become a standard framework for the study of institutional arrangements. The Coasian framework helps explain not only the existence of the firm, but also its size and scope. Why, in Coase’s (1937, pp. 393–94) words, “does the entrepreneur not organize one less transaction or one more?” Some firms are highly integrated: IBM...

How many measurements to make a decision?

Pascal Houillier,* Joël Coste,* and Marc Froissart* *Department of Physiology, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France; Department of Physiology, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France; INSERM, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, UMRS 872, Paris, France; Biostatistics and Epidemiology Unit, Hôpital Cochin, Assistance PubliqueHôpitaux de Paris, ...

Complexity, Flexibility, and the Make-or-Buy Decision

Sixty-five years ago, Ronald Coase (1937) asked what determines whether production will be organized in a firm or through the market, later coined the "make-or-buy" decision. This question was put center stage by Oliver Williamson (1975, 1985) who further developed transaction-costs economics (TCE), arguing that incomplete contracts and specific relationships overshadowed by opportunism, asymme...