October 7, 2024 There aren’t that many reading lists for organizational economics of floating around, so I thought I’d post the syllabus from my fall class. Email me with suggestions! DATETOPICREADINGAug 28Method and the Firm Leeson: “Economics is Not Statistics (and Vice Versa)” Langlois: “The Institutional Approach to Economic History: Connecting the Two Strands” Skarbek: “Qualitative Research Methods for Institutional Analysis” (optional) Coase: “The Nature of the Firm” Allen: “Transaction Costs” Smith: “Of the Division of Labor” (optional) Langlois: “The Secret Life of Mundane Transaction Costs” (optional)Sept 4Transaction Cost EconomicsKlein et al.: “Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process” Klein and Shelanski: “Empirical Research in Transaction Cost Economics: A Review and Assessment” (optional)Sept 11Measurement Barzel: “Measurement Costs and the Organization of Markets” Alchian and Demsetz: “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization” (optional)Sept 18Agency Manne: “Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control” Silverman and Ingram: “Asset Ownership and Incentives in Early Shareholder Capitalism: Liverpool Shipping in the Eighteenth Century”Sept 25Labor ContractsChisholm: “Profit-Sharing versus Fixed-Payment Contracts: Evidence from the Motion Pictures Industry”Oct 2Ownership Hansmann: “Ownership of the Firm” Klein: “Economic Calculation and the Limits of Organization” (optional) Langlois: “The Austrian Theory of the Firm: Retrospect and Prospect” (optional) Langlois: “Transaction Cost Economics in Real Time” (optional) Piano and Rouanet: “Economic Calculation and the Organization of Markets” (optional—on D2L) Foss and Klein: “Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm: Any Gains from Trade?” (optional—on D2L)Oct 9Hybrids Klein and Saft: “The Law and Economics of Franchise Tying Contracts” Dnes: “A Case-Study Analysis of Franchise Contracts” (optional) Menard: “The Economics of Hybrid Organizations” (optional)Oct 16Contracts, Brands, Quality Klein and Leffler: “The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance” Png and Reitman: “Why are some Products Branded and Others Not?”Oct 23Non-Profits Hansmann: “Economic Theories of Nonprofit Organization” (pp. 28-37) Allen: “Order in the Church: A Property Rights Perspective”Oct 30Clubs Leeson: “Governments, Clubs, and Constitutions” Barzel and Sass: “The Allocation of Resources by Voting” Greif: “The Fundamental Problem of Exchange” (pp. 265-272)Nov 6Criminal Organizations Leeson: “An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization” Leeson and Rogers: “Organizing Crime” Skarbek: “The Political Economy of Criminal Governance” (optional)Nov 13Bureaucracies Mises: Bureaucracy (pp. 40-56) Coyne: “The Politics of Bureaucracy and the Failure of Post-War Reconstruction”Nov 20Families Brinig: “Rings and Promises” Bring and Crafton: “Marriage and Opportunism” Dec 4Miscellaneous Topics Piano: “Organizing High-End Restaurants” (on D2L) Wernerfelt and Simester: “Determinants of Asset Ownership: A Study of the Carpentry Trade” Brown: “University Governance and Academic Tenure: A Property Rights Explanation”
