Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Annotation How do business enterprises control their subunits? In what ways do existing paths of communication within a firm affect its ability to absorb new technology and techniques? How do American banks affect how companies operate? Do theoretical constructs correspond to actual behavior? Because business enterprises are complex institutions, these questions can prove difficult to address. All too often, firms are treated as the atoms of economics, the irreducible unit of analysis. This accessible volume, suitable for course use, looks more closely at the American firm--into its internal workings and its genesis in the Gilded Age. Focusing on the crucial role of imperfect and asymmetric information in the operation of enterprises, Inside the Business Enterprise forges an innovative link between modern economic theory and recent business history Business History And Recent Economic Theory : Imperfect Information, Incentives, And The Internal Organization Of Firms / Daniel M. G. Raff And Peter Temin -- Managing By Remote Control : Recent Management Accounting Practice In Historical Perspective / H. Thomas Johnson -- The Use Of Cost Measures : The Dow Chemical Company, 1890-1914 / Margaret Levenstein -- Investing In Information : Supply And Demand Forces In The Use Of Information In American Firms, 1850-1920 / Joanne Yates -- Information Problems And Banks' Specialization In Short-term Commercial Lending : New England In The Nineteenth Century / Naomi R. Lamoreaux -- Did J. P. Morgan's Men Add Value? An Economist's Perspective On Financial Capitalism / J. Bradford De Long. Edited By Peter Temin. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Traditional economic theory-that is, economics as it has been taught to elementary students since World War II-is of only limited use to business historians.