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Economic calculation and the limits of organization

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The purpose of this paper has been to highlight some Austrian contributions to the theory of the firm and to suggest directions for future research along the same lines. In particular, Rothbard's argument about the need for markets in intermediate goods, and how that places limits on the scale and scope of the organization, deserves further development. This may be a more fruitful exercise than some work in the alternative Austrian traditions.

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  1. Peter G. Klein
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Peter G. Klein is assistant professor of economics at the University of Georgia. He thanks (without implicating) Don Boudreaux, Jerry Ellig, Sandy Klein, Dick Langlois, Joe Salerno, and Oliver Williamson for helpful comments and suggestions. Parts of this paper were presented as “Socialism and the Theory of the Firm” at the Institutional Analysis Workshop, University of California, Berkeley.

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Klein, P.G. Economic calculation and the limits of organization. Rev Austrian Econ 9, 3–28 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01103327

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