Oliver E. Williamson quotes

Oliver E. Williamson was an American economist renowned for his pioneering work in transaction cost economics. His research transformed the understanding of how organizations and markets function. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to the field. Here are 8 of his quotes:

Information impactedness is a derivative condition that arises mainly because of uncertainty and opportunism, though bounded rationality is involved as well. It exists when true underlying circumstances relevant to the transaction, or related set of transactions, are known to one or more parties but cannot be costlessly discerned by or displayed for others. (Oliver E. Williamson)
Because internal organization experiences added bureaucratic costs, the firm is usefully thought as the organization of last resort: try markets, try hybrids (long term contractual relations into which security features have been crafted), and resort to firms when all else fails. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
For those who, like myself, are inclined to be eclectic, no comprehensive commitment to one approach rather than another needs to be made. What is involved, rather, is the selection of the approach best suited to deal with the problems at hand. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
Managerial discretion can take many forms, some very subtle. Individual managers may run slack operations; they may pursue subgoals that are at variance with corporate purposes; they can engage in self-dealing. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
The transaction cost approach maintains that some projects are easy to finance by debt and ought to be financed by debt. These are projects for which physical-asset specificity is low to moderate. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
Vertical intergration is an organizational response to the contracting difficulties that attend intermediate product markets where trades that are supported by transaction-specific assets are exposed to hazard. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
The hypothesis that economic organization is the resultant of a series of historic accidents is intructive in that many organizational innovations appear to be the result of trial and error. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson
Teaching can be learning, especially if student curiosity with the question 'What's going on here?' can be elicited. View quote
Oliver E. Williamson

Oliver E. Williamson

Oliver E. Williamson - Image
Photo: Prolineserver (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0
Occupation: American Economist
Born: September 27, 1932
Died: May 21, 2020
Quotes count: 8
Wikipedia: Oliver E. Williamson

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