Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:36:11.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Entrepreneurs as Surrogate Forward Traders of Goods and Services, Seen from the Viewpoint of New Institutional Economics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Rudolf Richter
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics (Emeritus), University of Saarland, Law and Economics Faculty; homepage: http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak1/fr12/richter/home-ger.htm.
Get access

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate – in an argumentative style – that once we refrain from the usual neoclassical assumptions and integrate transaction costs, imperfect foresight and bounded rationality into present neoclassical (spot and futures) market theory, we get a more realistic perception of the decentralisation of intertemporal economic decision making. The failure of most futures markets for goods and services is compensated by firms (‘hierarchies’), which are led by entrepreneurs in the sense of Knight (1921) who may be seen as surrogate forward traders of goods and services. We claim that the ‘more realistic assumptions’ of New Institutional Economics, inter alia, provide a better perception of what takes place behind the veil of ‘money and finance’ than neoclassical economics, and why it makes sense to occasionally limit liability and, as a consequence, apply forms of private or public regulation. It might also help to explain some aspects of the financial crisis of 2008.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press and the Authors 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* Paper presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for New Institutional Economics at the University of Stirling, Scotland, 17–19 June 2010. I would like to express my thanks to Günther Hönn, Saarbrücken, for his helpful comments. I thank also Rainer Kulms (editor-in-chief of EBOR) for his suggested explanatory notes and Suzanne Habraken for her linguistic improvements of my original text.