Deals That Start When You Sign Them

Robert Gibbons

No 16803, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This essay explores six sentences from Oliver Williamson— five providing context and the sixth the central topic. Decades ago, Williamson asserted that: (a) “substantially the same factors†(1973: 316) create governance issues not only within organizations but also in interactions between organizations; and (b) relational contracting might be useful in addressing these issues in both domains (1979, Figure II). More recently—in an informal conversation in 2002—he suggested a perspective on relational contracting that appears valuable in both of these domains: relational contracts as “deals that start when you sign them.†The bulk of this essay explores past, present, and potential research on this perspective.

Keywords: Clarity problem; Relational contract; Williamson (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12
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