Contracts and Hierarchies: A Moral Examination of Economic Theories of the Firm

An influential set of economic theories argue that the firm is a nexus of contracts that institute a hierarchy to overcome the problems of incomplete contracting in the market. However, the economic theory of the firm as a hierarchy violates the moral requirement to respect the autonomy of those who...

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Autor principal: Lee, Jooho (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
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Publicado: Cambridge Univ. Press 2018
En: Business ethics quarterly
Año: 2018, Volumen: 28, Número: 2, Páginas: 153-173
Otras palabras clave:B Hierarchy
B theory of the firm
B Law and economics
B Gobierno corporativo
B Autonomy
Acceso en línea: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Sumario:An influential set of economic theories argue that the firm is a nexus of contracts that institute a hierarchy to overcome the problems of incomplete contracting in the market. However, the economic theory of the firm as a hierarchy violates the moral requirement to respect the autonomy of those who contract into the firm. The internal logic of the theory depends on a morally unacceptable abdication of a part of the employee’s capacity to set her own ends in the future. So a different theory is needed to understand the nature and purpose of the firm. The development of such a theory can benefit from business ethicists engaging with existing economic theories of the firm to explore concepts like contracts, agency, and property.
ISSN:2153-3326
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Business ethics quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/beq.2017.54