The diversity of contract farming arrangements has sometimes led to a general skepticism of universalist models. This chapter reviews the theoretical literature on contract farming within the field of economics, assessing and contrasting economic approaches with alternative frameworks. I start by summarizing some elements common to approaches followed by political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists and geographers before moving on to an elaborate discussion of economics frameworks. The goal of this chapter is to highlight the different points of departure of each approach, contrast these methodologies and identify areas where economic approaches can be infused with perspectives from other disciplines.