Transaction Economics of John R. Commons: Towards Reasonable Capitalism (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics) - Softcover

Takahashi, Shingo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032701404 ISBN 13: 9781032701400

Publisher: Routledge, 2026

Synopsis

Takahashi reconstructs the key blocks of one of the founders of the institutional school, John R. Commons’ theories of the evolution of capitalism and of institutional change by taking the concept of transaction as a central point of departure.

Commons’ theories continue to influence modern economics, and in this book, Takahashi scrutinizes his construction of transaction and its features and offers a reinterpretation of Commons’ institutional economics and transaction economics. He then explores how Commons’ analysis of going concerns (e.g., firms) has broader and deeper applications that extend to monetary policy, labor policy, and the business cycle. Takahashi examines how Commons’ and Veblen’s dynamic theories share cumulative causation. He closes by positing that Commons’ transaction economics seeks “reasonable capitalism” through a virtuous cycle of reasonable value and generation of good business ethics.

This book will be attractive to researchers of institutional economics, political economy, heterodox economics, as well as the history of economic thought, law, and ethics.

About this title

About the Author

Shingo Takahashi is a professor at the Tokyo College of Transport Studies, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. He has taught economics and the history of economic thought and studied the institutional economics of Commons for more than 20 years.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032701404
• ISBN 13: 9781032701400
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186