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Boyce, G. (1995). 'Communication and contracting: A link between business and social history'. Business and Economic History 24(1): 287.
http://www.thebhc.org/publications/BEHprint/v024n1/p0287-p0295.pdf
The relationship between business structures and their social and cultural setting has long interested economic historians. North (1990) and Williamson (1975) place information concerns at the center of their analyses of organizations and institutions. According to North, institutional arrangements, which consist of formal and informal constraints (respectively laws and behavioral codes), represent communicating infrastructures that influence transaction costs. Williamson explores how economic actors arrange, monitor, enforce contracts in the midst of asymmetrical information and uncertainty. These agreements are shaped by the degree of asset specificity, the frequency of exchange, and what he calls atmosphere. Atmosphere can have an important transaction cost reducing function, especially when ex post contingencies arise and induce sequential adjustments. Building on foundations provided by Williamson and North, the notion of contracting capability is used to examine the relationship between contracting and communicating.