Download or read book The Mechanisms of Governance written by Oliver E. Williamson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1996 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text studies transaction cost economics, influential in economic thought on how institutions work. Whereas orthodox economics describes the firm in technological terms, as a production function, transaction cost economics describes it in organizational terms, as a governance structure.