The Socio-Economic Organization of Business Activity in Cuanajo, Michoacan, Mexico: A Test of the Theories of the Institutional Economists

该奖项支持一位文化人类学家的研究 研究墨西哥的小型木材加工企业。 这项研究将 研究一个关于“制度经济学”的理论， 企业内部和企业之间的交易成本。 理论 预测，这些交易成本决定的形状， 一个公司的规模，这个项目测试和推进这一理论 通过让它面对来自小型家庭组织的数据， 在墨西哥的一个农村地区。 该理论的形成是为了 “抽象地”处理所有公司，但往往是无意识的 偏向于发达国家的大公司， 工业化国家。 用数据来对抗这个理论 来自墨西哥这样欠发达国家的小型家族企业 会揭示出逻辑上的矛盾和缺陷 修改以提高其功率和通用性。

This award supports the research of a cultural anthropologist studying small wood-working firms in Mexico. The research will examine a theory of "institutional economics" concerning the costs of transactions within and between firms. The theory predicts that these transactions costs determine the shape and size of a firm, and this projects tests and advances this theory by confronting it with data from small, often family-organized firms in a rural area of Mexico. The theory was formulated to deal with all firms "in the abstract", but with often unconscious bias towards the sorts of large firms one finds in developed, industrialized countries. Confronting this theory with data from small family firms in a less developed country like Mexico will reveal logical inconsistencies and flaws that can be modified to improve its power and generality.