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Fall 2007 Advanced Ph.D. Course: Industrial Organization - Firms Peter Thompson New Class Location: GC 275A |
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This class formally meets three times a week, MWF, from 10:00 to 10:50am. We will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays in the classroom: OE 134. On Fridays we will meet in my office. The structure of each week will be (approximately) as follows: Mondays: I will give a 50-minute lecture, providing an overview of the week’s topic, along with questions to think about. Wednesdays: We will discuss as a group one or two assigned papers. The discussions will center around questions that might generate new research ideas (e.g. is the theory robust to alternative, plausible assumptions? how might one test the theory? can the empirical work be done better? would the empirical results hold in different sample?). The conclusion of the discussion will be a set of tasks for you to accomplish as a group. One of you will be designated discussion leader in each session. Fridays: We will meet in my office so that you can provide me with an update on progress with the tasks for the week. We may also use this time to revise the remaining tasks. On the following Monday you must hand in a written report on the tasks for the previous week. Notes: 1. There is a lot of potential for free-riding – you know each other well and will have to work out an equitable distribution of work. 2. Immediately after the Wednesday tasks, you should meet among yourselves to divide activities up. You will need to keep in close contact with each other throughout the week Grading The written group work will account for 63% of your grade. 21% will be determined by your preparation for, and performance as, discussion leaders. The remaining 16% will be determined by your participation in the Wednesday discussions.
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Week 1. Monday Aug 27 & Wed Aug 29 Topic: Firm Entry. Factoids Geroski, Paul A. (1995): “What do we know about entry?” International Journal of Industrial Organization, 13(4):421-440. |
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Weeks 2 and 3. (Mon Sep 3; FIU Closed) Wed Sep 5, Mon Sep 10 & Wed Sep 12 Topic: Seminal theories of entrepreneurship. Lucas, Robert E., Jr. (1978): “On the size distribution of business firms.” Bell Journal of Economics, 9(2):508-523. Kihlstrom, Richard E., and Jean-Jacques Laffont (1979): “A general equilibrium entrepreneurial theory of firm formation based on risk aversion.” Journal of Political Economy, 87(4):719-748. Holmes, Thomas J., and James A. Schmitz, Jr. (1990): “A theory of entrepreneurship and its application to the study of business transfers.” Journal of Political Economy, 98(2):265-294. |
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Week 4. Mon Sep 17 & Wed Sep 19 Topic: Jacks of all trades Lazear, Edward P., (2002): “Entrepreneurship.” Journal of Labor Economics, 23(4):649-680. Astebro, Thomas, and Peter Thompson (2007): “Does it pay to be a Jack of all trades?.” Working paper 07-xx, Department of Economics, Florida International University.
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Week 5. Mon Sep 24 & Wed Sep 26 Topic: Wealth and entrepreneurship Evans, David S., and Boyan Jovanovic (1989): “An estimated model of entrepreneurial choice under liquidity constraints.” Journal of Political Economy, 97(4):808-827. Xu, Bin (1998): “A reestimation of the Evans-Jovanovic entrepreneurial choice model.” Economics Letters, 58(1):91-95. Lindh, Thomas, and Henry Ohlsson (1996): “Self-employment and windfall gains: evidence from the Swedish lottery.” Economic Journal, 106(439):1515-1526.
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Week 6. Mon Oct 1 & Wed Oct 3 Topic: Overconfidence and Entrepreneurship Bernardo, Antonio, and Ivo Welch (2001): “On the evolution of overconfidence and entrepreneurship.” Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 10:301-30. Landier, Augustin, and David Thesmar (2006): “Financial contracting with optimistic entrepreneurs: theory and evidence.” Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming. Van den Steen, Eric (2004): “Rational overoptimism (and other biases).” American Economic Review, 94(5):1141-51.
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Week 7. Mon Oct 8 & Wed Oct 10 Topic: The entrepreneur as thief Anton, James J., and Dennis A. Yao (1995): “Start-ups, spin-offs, and internal projects.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 11:362-378. |
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Week 8. Mon Oct 15 & Wed Oct 17 Topic: The persistence of founding conditions Geroski, Paul A., José Mata, and Pedro Portugal (2002): “Founding conditions and the survival of new firms.” Manuscript: Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Jovanovic, Boyan, and Peter Rouseau (2001): “Vintage organization capital.” NBER working paper no. 8166. |
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Week 9. Mon Oct 22 & Wed Oct 24 Topic: Determinants of Founding Team Formation Clarysse, Bart, and Nathalie Moray (2004): "A process study of entrepreneurial team formation: the case of a research-based spin-off." Journal of Business Venturing, 19(1):55-79. Ruef, Martin, Howard E. Aldrich, and Nancy M. Carter (203): "The structure of founding teams: homophily, strong ties, and isolation among U.S. entrepreneurs." American Sociological Review, 68:195-222.
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Week 10. Mon Oct 29 & Wed Oct 31 Topic: Firm age and growth Jovanovic, Boyan (1982): “Selection and the evolution of industry.” Econometrica, 50(7):649-670. (read only sections 1-3). Cooley, Thomas F. and Vincenzo Quadrini (2001): “Financial markets and firm dynamics.” American Economic Review, 91(5):1287-1310. Klepper, Steven, and Peter Thompson (2007): “Submarkets and the evolution of market structure.” Rand Journal of Economics, 37(4):862-888. |
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Week 11. Mon Nov 5 & Wed Nov 7 Topic: Hysteresis and lock-in under learning by doing Krugman, Paul R. (1987): "The narrow moving band, the Dutch disease, and the competitive consequences of Mrs. Thatcher : Notes on trade in the presence of dynamic scale economies." Journal of Development Economics, 27(1):41-55. Young, Alwyn
(1991): "Learning by doing and the dynamic effects of international trade.
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Weeks 12 & 13. (Mon Nov 12; FIU closed) Wed Nov 14, Mon Nov 19 (No Class on Wed Nov 21) Topic: Industry shakeouts Jovanovic, Boyan, and Glenn MacDonald (1994): “The life cycle of a competitive industry.” Journal of Political Economy, 102:322–47. Klepper, Steven (2002): “Firm survival and the evolution of oligopoly.” RAND Journal of Economics, 33(1):37–61. Klepper, Steven, and Simons, Kenneth L. (2000): “The making of an oligopoly: Firm survival and technological change in the evolution of the U.S. tire industry.” Journal of Political Economy 108:728–60.
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Week 14. Mon Nov 26 & Wed Nov 28 Topic: Industry clusters: labor mobility. Rebitzer, James (2006): “Job hopping in Silicon Valley: The microfoundations of a high tech industrial district.” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 88, No. 3, Pages 472-481. Franco, April F., and Matthew F. Mitchell “Covenants not to compete, labor mobility, and industry dynamics,” working paper, University of Iowa.
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Week 15. Mon Dec 3 & Wed Dec 5 Topic: Industry clusters: The founder as human being Sorenson, Olav, and Pino G. Audia (2000): “The social structure of entrepreneurial activity: Geographic concentration of footwear production in the U.S., 1940-1989.” American Journal of Sociology, 106:424-461. Klepper, Steven (2004): “Agglomeration through spinoffs: How Detroit became the capital of the U.S. automobile industry,” working paper, Carnegie Mellon University. (note: there are several versions of this paper with somewhat different titles. None is easy to find -- I have provided a link to an older version). |