New thinking on the firm: bringing together law, economics, organisation and history

About

The financial crisis has accelerated the debate on the nature and working of institutions that rule the functioning of markets. However, a number of arguments also trace the crisis to firm organisation,. There is therefore a need for an approach that link both the institutional level and the players regulated by institutions. Nevertheless both the theory of the firm and the legal debate, are adapting slowly and seem to employ concepts better fit to the economic environment and the industrial enterprises of the past century, rather than animated by efforts at rethinking the nature of the firm itself as fundamental institution of modern knowledge-intensive economies and democratic societies..
A major concern of the school is therefore to re-open a debate on the nature of the firm, complementing economic theory with organizational, historical and juridical perspectives; building on and promoting dialogue among research perspectives that are already interdisciplinary and have already taken steps in that direction, such as 'New Institutional Economics, 'Law, Economics & Organization', 'Organization and Management Theory', ‘Business History’, ‘Evolutionary economics’, and ‘Economic sociology’.

Course leader

Margaret Blair, Vanderbilt University Law School Nicolai Foss, Bobboni Universityl, Anna Grandori, Bocconi University

Target group

Advanced/candidate phds, post docs and junior scholars, Each module will include sessions dedicated to debate among faculty members and with the students, as well as to students’ project presentation and development.

Course aim

The program has been designed, and the faculty constituted, so as to build on contributions highlighting different responses to some key issues, organised in four main teaching modules.