Organization Matters

Abstract: Although now it is widely conceded that organization matters, it was not always so. Indeed, for economists, organization matters if and as it is susceptible to analysis. This paper begins with some historical and transitional perpsective on the status of organization in economics. I then examine different strategies for analysis, with emphasis on the focal transaction -- especially comparing the employment relation with the intermediate product market transaction. The logic of organization and of interface mediation as between alternative modes of governance are then worked up; empirical testing and public policy ramifications are then examined; and new challenges -- real time startups and contract laws (plural)-- are folded in. The paper ends where it began: organization matters for economists if and as it can be and is made susceptible to analysis.