This paper looks at the contribution made by pre-1870 writers in economics (proto-neoclassicals) to what would later become known as the neoclassical theory of the firm. In particular we briefly consider the work of Dionysius Lardner, Johann von Thünen, John Stuart Mill, Charles Ellet, Jr. and...

This paper looks at the influence (or lack of influence) that ideas to do with the division of labour have had on the mainstream economic theory of the firm. The notion of the division of labour goes back, at least, to ancient India, the ancient Greeks and the ancient Chinese but it took two...

In this essay we survey the literature on the theory of privatisation. We look at two periods defined by their relationship to the theory of the firm. In the period up to 1990 the literature followed the theory of the firm in using a complete or comprehensive contracting modelling framework. By...

The mainstream theory of the firm did not exist, in any serious manner, until around 1970. It was only starting then that the current theory of the firm literature began to emerge, based largely upon the work of Ronald Coase and to a lesser degree Frank Knight. It was work by Armen Alchian,...

In this overview we give a short survey of the way in which the theory of the firm has been formulated within the `mainstream' of economics, both `past' and `present'. One aim is to give an outline of the historical developments that led to the contemporary theories. As to a breakpoint between...

Marshall's idea of 'representative firm' was created to reconcile his dynamic view of individual firms with the static view of industries. But this idea was somewhat nebulous and did not last very long in the economics literature. Marshall first wrote about the representative firm in his...

This is a revised edition of Walker (2017). New sections or subsections have been added on the X-inefficiency model, the division of labour and the firm - both pre and post-1970, ownership of the firm and the human capital based firm. Additions have been made to sections on entrepreneurship, the...

Plant (1937) versus Coase (1937) on the firm. Outlines of and comparisons between ‘The Nature of the Firm’ and ‘Centralise or Decentralise?’ are given. The nature of the relationship between the two papers is discussed

This survey gives an overview of the theory of the firm as it is formulated within the contemporary 'mainstream' of economics. Two groupings of theories are briefly discussed: principal-agent and incomplete contract models. Next, three of the most recent contributions regarding firms are...