The Economics of Contracts

Part I. Introduction: 1 Economics of contracts and renewal of economic analysis Eric Brousseau and Jean -Michel Glachant; Appendix: canonical models of three different theories of contract M'hand Fares; Part II. Contracts, Organizations and Institutions: 2. The new institutional economics Ronald Coase; 3. Contract and economic organization Oliver Williamson; 4. The role of incomplete contracts in self-enforcing relationships Benjamin Klein; 5. Entrepreneurship, transaction costs and the design of contracts Erik G. Furubotn; Part III. Law and Economics: 6. The contract as economic exchange Jacques Ghestin; 7. Contract theory and theories of contract regulation Alan Schwartz; 8. Economic reasoning and the framing of contract law Victor Goldberg; 9. A transactions costs approach to the analysis of property rights Gary Libecap; Part IV. Theoretical Developments: Where Do We Stand?: 10. Transaction costs in incentive theory David Martimort and Eric Malin; 11. Norms and the theory of the firm Oliver Hart; 12. Liquidity constraint and the allocation of control rights Philippe Aghion and Patrick Rey; 13. Complexity and contract W. Bentley McLeod; 14. Authority, as flexibility, is the core of labour contracts Olivier Favereau and Bernard Walliser; 15. Positive agency theory: positioning and contribution Gerard Charreaux; Part V. Testing Contract Theories: 16. Econometrics of contracts: an assessment of developments in the empirical literature on contracting Scott Masten and Stephanie Saussier; 17. Experiments on moral hazard and incentives: reciprocity and surplus sharing Marc Willinger and Claudia Keser; Part VI. Applied Issues: Contributions to Industrial Organization: 18. Residual claimancy rights and ongoing rents as incentive mechanisms in franchise contracts: complements or substitutes? Francine Lafontaine and Emmanuel Raynaud; 19. The quasi judicial role of large retailers Benito Arrunada; 20. Interconnection agreements: strategic behaviour and property rights

Eric Brousseau is Professor of Economics at the University of Paris X. Jean-Michel Glachant is Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Paris XI.