Contractual Networks, Inter-Firm Cooperation and Economic Growth

Edited by Fabrizio Cafaggi, Professor, Scuola Nazionale dell'Amministrazione, Rome, and Director, Center for Judicial Cooperation, EUI, Florence, Italy

This insightful book presents a legal and economic analysis of inter-firm cooperation through networks as an alternative to vertical integration. It examines comparatively various forms of collaboration, ranging from consortia to multiparty joint ventures and from franchising to dealerships.

‘Contractual networks – loose associations of firms – are fundamental but little-understood features of the modern economic landscape. Observed across a wide range of industries and in many different settings, these networks present important questions for the theory of the firm and for the analysis of modern industrial organization. This volume brings together cutting edge research on contractual networks across a range of industries, geographic regions, and legal environments – research that demonstrates the extraordinary flexibility and complexity of these forms of industrial organization and illuminates many aspects of their structure and function. Highly recommended.’
– Geoffrey Miller, New York University, US

‘In a rapidly changing context of technological and business innovation, characterised in particular by networks that are geared for coordination and cooperation, multi-party contractual consortia, and linked transactions, is the law fit for purpose? How well does contract law map on to, and serve, markets that are now organised in networked ways? For anyone wishing to engage with these important questions, the essays in this collection, contributed by some of the leading figures in European private law, are essential reading.’
——罗杰·Brownsword国王学院London, UK