Posts filed under ‘Former Guest Bloggers’
An Even Brighter Side of Global Warming?
| Richard Langlois |
I remain agnostic about whether global warming is taking place and, if so, whether it is being caused by human behavior. In part, my skepticism comes from some familiarity with large mathematical models in my graduate student days — and my recollection of how sensitive they are to the assumptions fed in. I certainly agree with Peter about what the issues are.
But I recently saw a review by Bob Whaples on EH.net (the economic history website and list-serve) of a book called Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate by William F. Ruddiman. According to the review, the earth for the last 900,000 years or so has experienced cycles in which massive glaciation lasting on the order of 100,000 years has alternated with comparatively brief (10,000 year) “interglacials.” (more…)
Theories of Religion
| Richard Langlois |
My previous post was in part a comment on Nicolai’s Bastille Day post. While I’m at it, I thought I might comment on another aspect of that post, namely Armstrong’s theory of religions of the “Axial Age.” I haven’t read the book (of course), but I’m skeptical, since most of human history until recently (and still now in much of the world) was a time of “violence, political disruption and extreme intolerance.” Another theory of religion that readers of this blog might find interesting is that suggested by Burton Mack in “Who Wrote the New Testament?” (which I actually have read). He argues — perhaps reflecting a generally accepted view among secular biblical scholars — that Christianity was the product of ancient “globalization.” Judaism was (or at least grew out of) an ethnic temple-state religion, and its innovation of monotheism was useful in helping to bind together an ethnic community. (We have been chosen by the one true God.) By contrast, as Morris Silver has argued, Greek religion was a congeries of local gods assembled from the various peoples the Greeks and later Romans had conquered — and thus a useful kind of religion for empire-builders, since you could just add the local god to the pantheon to make the locals happy. (The Jews never bought into that, of course, and suffered for it.) (more…)
Introducing Guest Blogger Richard Langlois
It is a pleasure to welcome Richard Langlois as our newest guest blogger. Dick is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut and Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Business History at the Copenhagen Business School. A prolific scholar and accomplished teacher, Dick is author or editor of nine books and dozens of articles in the theory of the firm, organizational boundaries, technology, the economics of institutions, the history of economic thought, and economic methodology. (His impressive CV is here.)
During the next couple of weeks Dick will share his thoughts on these subjects and whatever else strikes his fancy. Please join us in welcoming him to the team.
Time Inconsistency and a Stakeholder Theory of the Firm
| Joe Mahoney |
Recently I have become more persuaded that the incomplete contracting literature potentially offers a theoretical foundation for a stakeholder theory of the firm.
In this light, two industrial organization economists — Dan Kovenock and Stephen Martin — have “inspired” me to learn more about the concept of time inconsistency problems. In a world of incomplete contracting, we often face the potential for time inconsistency problems (Grossman and Hart, 1986) and opportunistic rent extraction. A policy that is optimal ex ante but sub-optimal ex post can be described as “time inconsistent.”
Announcing Guest Blogger Joe Mahoney
| Nicolai Foss |
Peter and I are extremely pleased and proud to announce our new guest blogger, Joseph Mahoney. Joe is a Professor of Strategy at the Dept. of Business Administration, College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His first blog entry will appear later today.
Many readers of this blog will know Joe’s work. For those who don’t, suffice it to say that Joe is one of the most prolific and influential scholars in strategic management. While perhaps most often associated with the resource-based view, Joe has also done important work on transaction cost economics (indeed, his knowledge of TCE is encyclopedic) and on entrepreneurship, drawing on Austrian economics. His paper with Ron Sanchez on modularity (SMJ, 1996) and another with J.R. Pandian (SMJ, 1992) are among the most cited and influential SMJ papers. He has recently published a nice volume on Economic Foundations of Strategy with Sage.
Welcome, Joe!
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