2016
ISBN: 978-1138191532
This book firstly offers an overview of the past, consisting of a discussion of the classical view of production, followed by an outline of the development of the neoclassical - ‘textbook’ - approach to firm level production. Secondly, the ‘present’ of the theory of the firm is discussed in three sections. The first section considers the post-1970 theory of the firm literature per se, while the second section scrutinises the relationship between the three most prominent of the modern sets of theories: the reference point, property rights and transaction cost approaches. The third section looks at the theory of privatisation.