It is a widely accepted principle of economics that if two or more adults voluntarily agree to a contract or an exchange that has no negative fall-out on others, then the government should not stop such a contract. This is often called the ‘principle of free contract’ (PFC). There is a body of writing in economics which upholds the PFC. Yet, this ubiquitous principle is ill-defined and full of ...

We have first demonstrated that Debreu’s view regarding the publication of The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by von Neumann and Morgenstern in 1944 as the birth of modern mathematical economics is not convincing. In this paper, we have proposed the hypothesis that the coordinated research programs in the 1930’s, initiated by the Econometric Society and the Cowles Commission for Research...

This Essay does not focus on legal theory in law schools, the common core of legal scholarship as practiced in law schools, nor the trend towards interdisciplinary research as reflected in the “law and” movements in law schools. Rather, it looks outside of law schools, law reviews, and internal legal discourse. It examines the role that legal scholars play in interdisciplinary debates on legal ...

The chief contribution of economics toward improving understanding of the way the world works is probably the theory of price. This theory has proven to be a robust tool for explaining how human behaviorresponds tochanges in constraints facing individuals. Price theory may not be the most glamorous or technically demanding body of theory in economics, but it is likely the most fundamental. Econ...

To date, experiments in economics are restricted to situations in which individuals are not influenced by the physical presence of other people. In such contexts, interactions remain at an abstract level, agents guessing what another person is thinking or is about to decide based on money exchange. Physical presence and bodily signals are therefore left out of the picture. However, in real life...

interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Abstract Neoclassical economics maintains that a legal system is required to foster anonymous exchange and hence efficiency. In contrast, social scientists from other disciplines emphas...

This article examines the performance implications of information exchange in industrial supply chains. While e.xisting literature has addressed the critical role of information exchange in supply chain integration, existing studies fail to address the specific characteristics of information e.xchange that ajfect performance. Through a transaction cost economics theoretical lens, hypotheses are...