Skip to main content

Bureaucracy

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
  • 49 Accesses

Abstract

Bureaucracy in both businesses and governments continues to grow despite its unpopularity. Falling transport and communication costs have created global markets. The rising relative importance of firms with new technologies and methods often unsuited to market transfer via licensing of patents has given rise to multinational corporations with transnational bureaucracies. Government bureaucracies typically produce indivisible goods contributions to which by individual bureaucrats cannot be measured, giving rise to red tape and enabling bureaucracies to exploit society’s demand for their products. Bureaucracies may not be highly efficient, but market failures that give rise to them also make them inevitable.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Breton, A., and R. Wintrobe. 1975. The equilibrium size of a budget maximizing bureau. Journal of Political Economy 83: 195–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, P., and M. Casson. 1976. The future of the multinational enterprise. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A.D. 1962. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A.D. 1977. The visible hand: The managerial revolution in American business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, A.D., and H. Daems, eds. 1980. Managerial hierarchies: Comparative perspectives on the rise of modern industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coase, R.H. 1937. The nature of the firm. Economica 4 : 386–405.N.S.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hennart, J.-F. 1982. A theory of the multinational enterprise. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McManus, J.C. 1972. The theory of the international firm. In The multinational firm and the nation state, ed. G. Paquet and D. Mills. Ontario: Collier Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, D.C., and P. Murrell. 1985. Interest groups and the political economy of government size. In Public expenditure and government growth, ed. F. Forte and A. Peacock. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niskanen, W.A. 1971. Bureaucracy and representative government. Chicago: Aldine-Antherton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M.L. 1973. Evaluating performance in the public sector. In The measurement of economic and social performance, Studies in income and wealth, ed. M. Moss, vol. 38. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M.L. 1974. The priority of public problems. In The corporate society, ed. R. Marris. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M.L. 1982. Environmental indivisibilities and information costs: Fanaticism, agnosticism, and intellectual progress. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 72: 262–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M.L. 1985. Space, agriculture, and organization. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 67: 928–937.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M.L. 1986. Toward a more general theory of governmental structure. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 76: 120–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tullock, G. 1965. The politics of bureaucracy. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. 1946. Bureaucracy. In From Max Weber: Essays in sociology, ed. H. Gerth and C.W. Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O.E. 1964. The economics of discretionary behavior: Managerial objectives in a theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O.E. 1975. Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and anti-trust implications. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O.E. 1985. The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Olson, M. (2018). Bureaucracy. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_435

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics