The Ownership of Enterprise

By Henry Hansmann

Book Overview

The investor-owned corporation is the conventional form for structuring large-scale enterprise in market economies. But it is not the only one. Even in the United States, noncapitalist firms play a vital role in many sectors. Employee-owned firms have long been prominent in the service professions - law, accounting, investment banking, medicine - and are becoming increasingly important in other industries. The buyout of United Airlines by its employees is the most conspicuous recent instance. Farmer-owned produce cooperatives dominate the market for most basic agricultural commodities. Consumer-owned utilities provide electricity to one out of eight households.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674649702
• ISBN13: 9780674649705
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Toward a comprehensive classification of human organizations

Based on property right arrangements, Henry Hansmann proposed in his 1996 book an organizational classification covering most of organizations under the system of private property. With the postulate of cost minimization, he demonstrates convincingly how various kinds of organizations can be placed into the analytical framework of economics. In my opinion, this organizational theory needs only some slight extension to become a comprehensive one that includes all organizations under the private property system. With this extended viewpoint, all seemingly complicated issues of organizations can be placed into a unified and systematic framework of analysis. This is the power and beauty of his organizational theory. My opinion is that Henry Hansmann has made path-breaking contribution in the study of this filed, following R. Coase, A. Alchian, and S. Cheung.