On The Theories Of The Firm:A Comparative Study Between The Economic Doctrines Of Marx And The New Institutional Economics

In some sense, reflections by the theories of the firm both in new institutional economics and in the economic doctrines of Marx upon the traditional harmonious theory of the market mechanism are the basis of the comparative study on these two systems of economics in which the theories of the firm, when methodology and the basic orientation of value are concerned, have many specific distinctions, proposing the necessity of comparison. This dissertation begins with the analysis of the different comprehensions of these two systems of economics upon human nature and the characteristics of human behavior, presents respectively the basic contents of the two kinds of theories of the firm, in terms of nature, size and internal rights-distribution structure of the enterprise, and then makes a comparison of the similarities and distinctions between the two. In the view of this dissertation, nature of the enterprise should be explained in the perspective of the relations of production rather than of circulation, since the enterprise is a kind of form of business organization in the economic relationship; size of the enterprise depends on three elements, namely, technique, market and capital; internal distribution structure of the enterprise, with residual rights of control and residual claimancy, is the objective result of adjusting to the technical requirement of the enterprise, so it will not come to a random change caused by any kinds of idealized theory. Some innovative views are proposed by this dissertation. In the economic thought of Marx, the common thing determined by two kinds of social necessary labor time is primarily the gross of value of commodities within the department; the enterprise is a kind of form of economic organization that can increase the sociality of labour of private individual; and the inevitable course of evolvement of the controlling and controlled relationship between labour and capital in the inside of Marx's enterprise can be interpreted by a basic structure, that is, technique-elements bearing the technical realization--relationship of the elements' owner. This dissertation also points out that one of the main difficulties of the theory of thefirm in new institutional economics lies in the fact that the residual rights of control have to be divided between the owners of human capital and that of non-human capital though they are an original whole. This kind of comparative study currently makes such great sense as to deepen our understanding of the economic ideas of Marx and to absorb and use dialectically the achievement of the theory of the firm in the new institutional economics for reference.