Abstract

Jensen and Meckling’s 1976 definition of the firm as a legal fiction which serves as a nexus for contracts between individuals sits well with the Coasean narrative on the firm while at the same time being at odds with it. Available interviews with Jensen shed little light on the origins and meaning of this unusual definition. The article shows how the definition captured, and was a response to, the American socio-political context of the early and mid-1970s, and traces how Jensen and Meckling employed it once they themselves became immersed in the public debate about corporate responsibility and regulation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It also considers Jensen and Meckling’s place in the literature on the economics of corporate law developed mostly in the 1980s.

中文翻译：

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论詹森和梅克林对公司的定义的起源，含义和影响

摘要

詹森和梅克林（Jensen and Meckling）在1976年将公司定义为一种法律小说，将其作为个人之间联系的纽带，这与公司的科斯（Coasean）叙述相吻合，而与此同时却与此相矛盾。对詹森的可用采访对这个不同寻常的定义的起源和含义了解甚少。本文展示了该定义如何捕捉并响应了1970年代初和中期的美国社会政治背景，并追溯了詹森和梅克林如何沉浸在有关公司责任和监管的公开辩论中时如何运用该定义。在1970年代末和1980年代初。它还考虑了詹森和麦克林在有关公司法经济学的文献中的地位，这些文献主要是在1980年代发展起来的。