Ex Post and Ex Ante Coordination: Principles of Coherence in Organizations and Markets

David Cayla

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Abstract: In the traditional trade-off between internalization and externalization, economists tend to undervalue the role of intentionality (Williamson 1991) and to accord a dominant place to market coordinating devices (ex post coordination) compared to hierarchical coordinating devices (ex ante coordination). The aim of this paper is to show how the introduction of the concept of coherence, which is frequently invoked by economists in order to apprehend the firm specificities (Holmstrom 1999), may help to revaluate the trade-off between markets and firms in the advantage of the later. In particular, it will be shown that the attributes of coherence in ex post coordinating devices are fundamentally different from the ones that can be found in ex ante coordination systems.

Keywords: coherence; ex post coordination; ex ante coordination; order; rules; abstract rules; concrete rules; Hayek; Bateson; coordination ex post; coordination ex ante; ordre; règles; règles abstraites; règles concrètes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-06
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00110810v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of Economic Issues, 2006, 40 (2), pp.325-332

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00110810

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