Organization Of Economic Activity Research Articles

Outer Space Resources in Efficient and Equitable Use: New Frontiers for Old Principles

SPACE is the common property of mankind. Traditionally, access to common property resources such as the oceans has been open and free. This is appropriate for resources that are plentiful. At first glance, space appears to be not only abundant but infinite. However, future demand for space resources may soon make them scarce in the sense that an allocation mechanism will be needed for their efficient utilization. Satellites already perform traditional and new services using outer space resources, and plans for industrial ventures in space are under way. Space activities compete with more earthly activities for use of the scarce electromagnetic spectrum. This paper demonstrates how the general principles of efficient markets easily can be extended to space resources. In fact, the market mechanism is particularly well suited to achieving efficient use of these resources given the difficulty for a central authority to obtain the necessary information. The paper is inspired by two seminal articles by R. H. Coase on the organization of economic activity.' Our application is one of many

Perfect competition, the profit criterion, and the organization of economic activity

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses perfect competition, the Profit Criterion, and the organization of economic activity. If firms have monopoly power, then it is well known that profit seeking will generally result in the marketing of an inefficient set of commodities. However, if firms are perfect competitors, then it is widely believed that self-interested profit seeking will result in an efficient set of marketed commodities. That is, an economic system founded on the Profit Criterion is efficient. The chapter presents a competitive model that endogenously determines the set of traded commodities. The chapter presents (a) characterization of a perfectly competitive firm as an idealization of Hart's small firm in his limiting economy, (b) the unanimity result, which is a reformulation of Hart's unanimity result, showing that it follows from firms being perfectly competitive, and (c) the optimality result, which is a simplified version of Hart's optimality theorem, showing that it depends crucially on convexity and differentiability assumptions. In some sense the model completes the standard competitive model, which may be interpreted as a model in which the set of markets—whether complete or incomplete—is exogenously given.

Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations

THE new institutional economics is preoccupied with the origins, incidence, and ramifications of transaction costs. Indeed, if transaction costs are negligible, the organization of economic activity is irrelevant, since any advantages one mode of organization appears to hold over another will simply be eliminated by costless contracting. But despite the growing realization that transaction costs are central to the study of economics,' skeptics remain. Stanley Fischer's complaint is typical: Transaction costs have a well-deserved bad name as a theoretical device ... [partly] because there is a suspicion that almost anything can be rationalized by invoking suitably specified transaction costs.2 Put differently, there are too many degrees of freedom; the concept wants for definition.

Contribuição ao Estudo da Localização Industrial: O Caso de Niterói

All problems related to urban land use are of great interest not only to geographers but to all those scholars who are interested in studying the spatial organization of economic activities within the city. The study of industrial location, however, has been traditionally awarded a low priority in spatial research, which has tended to emphasize the locational characteristics of other economic activities which take place in the city. Based on a brief review of the literature on industrial location, the present study tries to identify some general principles which govern the location of secondary sector activities in the city through time. These principles are then tested for their relevancy in the context of downtown Niterói, the second most important município of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region.

THE FUTURE AND THE PRESENT IN ECONOMIC LIFE

Economic InquiryVolume 16, Issue 2 p. 157-169 THE FUTURE AND THE PRESENT IN ECONOMIC LIFE KENNETH J. ARROW, KENNETH J. ARROW *James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University. This paper is dedicated to Armen Alchian, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday and was originally read at a celebration of that happy event. I have learned much from Armen over the years on the subtle interactions of the market and the organization of economic activity in general and have enjoyed his friendship. It is a delight to celebrate his achievements to date, while awaiting new ones.Search for more papers by this author KENNETH J. ARROW, KENNETH J. ARROW *James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University. This paper is dedicated to Armen Alchian, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday and was originally read at a celebration of that happy event. I have learned much from Armen over the years on the subtle interactions of the market and the organization of economic activity in general and have enjoyed his friendship. It is a delight to celebrate his achievements to date, while awaiting new ones.Search for more papers by this author First published: April 1978 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1978.tb00278.xCitations: 44 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume16, Issue2April 1978Pages 157-169 RelatedInformation

Spatial Organization Theory as a Easis for Recsional Planning

Abstract A theoretical basis of regional planning can be found in the theories of location and spatial organization. The economic interdependencies which determine the organization of economic activities in space are analyzed, special consideration being given to the interplay of internal and external economies, transport costs, and the demand for land. Regional policy planning should start with what is historically given and seek to modify it—on the basis of the available knowledge about the economic interdependencies, and within the constraints set by technology, individual and social preferences, and other non-economic factors. The outcome is a compromise based on a combination of certain technological rigidities, certain spatio-economic interdependencies, and individual flexibilities of locational choice. The aim of public policy is to interfere with some of the market forces and thus to influence the bases of the free individual decisions in such a way that the achievement of social objectives is fur...