"The Nature of the Firm"
E455286
"The Nature of the Firm" is a foundational 1937 economic essay by Ronald Coase that explains why firms exist and how transaction costs shape their size and structure.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "The Nature of the Firm" canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4587064 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "The Nature of the Firm" Context triple: [Ronald Coase, notableWork, "The Nature of the Firm"]
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A.
The Theory of Corporate Finance
The Theory of Corporate Finance is a comprehensive textbook by economist Jean Tirole that systematically develops modern corporate finance theory using tools from contract theory and information economics.
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B.
The Theory of Industrial Organization
The Theory of Industrial Organization is a foundational economics textbook by Jean Tirole that systematically develops modern industrial organization theory using game-theoretic tools.
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C.
behavioral theory of the firm
The behavioral theory of the firm is an organizational and economic framework that explains how companies actually make decisions based on bounded rationality, routines, and internal politics rather than purely profit-maximizing optimization.
-
D.
The Positive Theory of Capital
The Positive Theory of Capital is a foundational work in Austrian economics that systematically analyzes the nature of capital, interest, and time preference in the production process.
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E.
The Antitrust Paradox
The Antitrust Paradox is a highly influential 1978 book by legal scholar Robert Bork that reshaped U.S. antitrust law by arguing that its primary goal should be the protection of consumer welfare rather than competitors.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "The Nature of the Firm" Target entity description: "The Nature of the Firm" is a foundational 1937 economic essay by Ronald Coase that explains why firms exist and how transaction costs shape their size and structure.
-
A.
The Theory of Corporate Finance
The Theory of Corporate Finance is a comprehensive textbook by economist Jean Tirole that systematically develops modern corporate finance theory using tools from contract theory and information economics.
-
B.
The Theory of Industrial Organization
The Theory of Industrial Organization is a foundational economics textbook by Jean Tirole that systematically develops modern industrial organization theory using game-theoretic tools.
-
C.
behavioral theory of the firm
The behavioral theory of the firm is an organizational and economic framework that explains how companies actually make decisions based on bounded rationality, routines, and internal politics rather than purely profit-maximizing optimization.
-
D.
The Positive Theory of Capital
The Positive Theory of Capital is a foundational work in Austrian economics that systematically analyzes the nature of capital, interest, and time preference in the production process.
-
E.
The Antitrust Paradox
The Antitrust Paradox is a highly influential 1978 book by legal scholar Robert Bork that reshaped U.S. antitrust law by arguing that its primary goal should be the protection of consumer welfare rather than competitors.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
ⓘ
economic essay ⓘ work on the theory of the firm ⓘ |
| approach | institutional analysis of markets and firms ⓘ |
| argues |
firms arise when internal organization is less costly than market transactions
ⓘ
the boundary of the firm is determined where internal costs equal market transaction costs ⓘ |
| author | Ronald Coase NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citationStyleTitle | “The Nature of the Firm” NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contributedTo | Ronald Coase receiving the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| explains |
how transaction costs influence the formation of firms
ⓘ
how transaction costs influence the internal structure of firms ⓘ how transaction costs influence the size of firms ⓘ why firms exist instead of all production being organized through markets ⓘ |
| field |
economics
ⓘ
institutional economics ⓘ law and economics ⓘ |
| hasImpactOn |
Coasean theory of the firm
ⓘ
development of transaction cost economics ⓘ |
| hasReprintIn |
anthologies on the theory of the firm
ⓘ
various collections of Coase’s essays ⓘ |
| influencedField |
business strategy
ⓘ
contract theory ⓘ corporate governance theory ⓘ industrial organization ⓘ organizational economics ⓘ |
| introducesConcept | transaction costs in using the price mechanism ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
comparative costs of planning versus markets
ⓘ
costs of using the price mechanism ⓘ internal organization costs ⓘ market transaction costs ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
boundaries of the firm
ⓘ
existence of firms ⓘ firm size ⓘ market versus hierarchy ⓘ theory of the firm NERFINISHED ⓘ transaction costs ⓘ |
| methodology | theoretical analysis ⓘ |
| publicationDate | November 1937 ⓘ |
| publicationType | journal article ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1937 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Economica NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| recognizedAs |
classic in the theory of the firm
ⓘ
foundational work in transaction cost economics ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor | The Problem of Social Cost NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| timePeriodDiscussed | early 20th century industrial organization ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: "The Nature of the Firm" Description of subject: "The Nature of the Firm" is a foundational 1937 economic essay by Ronald Coase that explains why firms exist and how transaction costs shape their size and structure.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.