Paul Walker • Mar 27, 2014 •
Everyones third favourite Marxist, Chris Dillow, wants to discuss Football as Financial Economics while the not-so-Marxist Jim Rose asks Why are there so few workers co-ops? Is there a connection here?For me, yes. Right now I should be working on a revise and resubmit on a paper in which, in its conclusion, I argue why there … Read More
Paul Walker • Mar 06, 2014 •
One of the amazing things about markets are the number of different organisational forms that appear as solutions to problems that people face. When it comes to business the most common form of organisation is the investor-owned firm. Another less common, but still widely seen, form of business organisation is the partnership in which the ownership rights are shared among … Read More
Paul Walker • Sep 04, 2013 •
A world of economics has lost the greatest economist of the 20th century. The death of Ronald Harry Coase has deprived the economists profession of one of its creative and innovative thinkers. His introduction of transaction costs into economics gave rise to the modern theory of the firm, law and economics and the new institutional economics. For me the most … Read More
Paul Walker • Aug 07, 2013 •
At the Latent Paradigm blog Seth Goldin asks Why would a firm choose vertical integration? Part of Goldin's answer reads, Why would a profit-maximizing firm choose vertical integration? Recall from Coase that firms exist to minimize transaction costs. If transaction costs between lessors and lessees are high enough, vertical integration is attractive. According to the widely … Read More
Paul Walker • Jul 26, 2013 •
Arnold Kling writes, James Piereson writes, For much of U.S. history, nonprofits have operated as a check on government by providing private avenues to serve the public interest. Unfortunately, American charities—and more broadly, the entire nonprofit sector—have become a creature of big government… The publication Giving USA, which tracks charitable spending, reports that the government now supplies one-third … Read More
Paul Walker • Jul 17, 2013 •
Being able to judge market signals and learn from what they are telling you is important for any firm operating within a market system. But what if your firm worked outside of a market system, Would it still have the skills to respond to market information? The answer appears to be no. A new NBER paper from Thomas Triebs and … Read More
Paul Walker • Jun 14, 2013 •
Thanks to an email from Eric Crampton I have been alerted to a paper, with the title given above, by Wolfgang Keller and Stephen Ross Yeaple on the transfer of knowledge between countries. More precisely the transfer of knowledge between countries but within multinational companies. The paper appears in the American Economic Review, 2013, 103(4): 1414–1444, and the … Read More
Paul Walker • Jun 08, 2013 •
Over at the SSRN website there is a new working paper out on the question Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration? Evidence from Trade Policy by Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman. The abstract of the paper rea... Read More
Paul Walker • May 28, 2013 •
In a previous posting I noted that By the late 1970s-early 1980s the sceptical minority was becoming larger, the mood was turning against government ownership [of firms] among both politicians and economists. One of the motivating forces for politicians and economists rethinking their position on state-owned enterprises was a history of under performance by these firms worldwide. Some … Read More
Paul Walker • May 26, 2013 •
In an earlier posting I discussed the theory of privatisation. This theory has largely developed since around 1990. But what was the thinking before then? What was the logic behind the nationalisations of the early and mid 20 century? What was the thin... Read More