"R. H. Coase in his 1991 Nobel Prize Lecture--included in this paperback edition--held that the importance of his 1937 article, "The Nature of the Firm," was "the explicit introduction of transaction costs into economic analysis," and described the future challenge to social scientists as the relentless "study of the world of positive transaction costs. " This book develops that central emphasis and unifying theme from the Coasian research agenda. Book jacket. "--BOOK JACKET.