https://www.sfu.ca/~wainwrig/Econ400/jensen-meckling.pdf

Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure

In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

/pdf/social-capital-in-the-creation-of-human-capital-1836wo2872.pdf

Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital

The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this imaginary universe of perfect competition or perfect equality of opportunity, a world without inertia, without accumulation, without heredity or acquired properties, in which every moment is perfectly independent of the previous one, every soldier has a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, and every prize can be attained, instantaneously, by everyone, so that at each moment anyone can become anything. Capital, which, in its objectified or embodied forms, takes time to accumulate and which, as a potential capacity to produce profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form, contains a tendency to persist in its being, is a force inscribed in the objectivity of things so that everything is not equally possible or impossible. And the structure of the distribution of the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moment in time represents the immanent structure of the social world, i.e. , the set of constraints, inscribed in the very reality of that world, which govern its functioning in a durable way, determining the chances of success for practices.

Forms of Capital

This paper considers the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development. Three models are considered and compared to evidence: a model emphasizing physical capital accumulation and technological change, a model emphasizing human capital accumulation through schooling, and a model emphasizing specialized human capital accumulation through learning-by-doing.

The mechanics of economic development

http://individual.utoronto.ca/zheli/sa1.pdf

On the mechanics of economic development

The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle

Economic growth, inequality and population growth . The family and the state

Rates of Return from College Education

This paper considers specialization and the division of labor. A more extensive division of labor raises productivity because returns to the time spent on tasks are usually greater to workers who concentrate on a narrower range of skills. The traditional discussion of the division of labor emphasizes the limitations to specialization imposed by the extent of the market. We claim that the degree of specialization is more often determined by other considerations. Especially emphasized are various costs of "coordinating" specialized workers who perform complementary tasks, and the amount of general knowledge available.

The Division of Labor, Coordination Costs, and Knowledge

George Stigler was born in a small town near Seattle and grew up in that city. He was the only child of immigrant parents who came from farm backgrounds his father from Germany and his mother from Hungary. Until he was three, George only spoke German and retained fluency in that language throughout his life. He always spoke fondly of his youth in the Northwest. He attended Seattle public schools, and read insatiably on his own. He spent his summers and other free time playing tennis, climbing local mountains and camping through active involvement in the Boy Scouts, and engaging in assorted minor mischief. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle, where he majored in business administration. He intended to go into business, but the Great Depression was in full swing when he graduated in 1931. Lacking any employment opportunities, he decided to get an MBA at Nothwestern. It was there that he became interested in economics and the possibility of pursuing an academic career. A major turning point in his professional and personal life came with his decision to enroll for a Ph.D degree at the University of Chicago. Chicago had an outstanding department of economics that was led by Frank Knight and Jacob Viner. Knight had an immense influence, and Stigler wrote his dissertation under him on the history of marginal productivity theories in the analysis of output decisions. But Viner may had the greater long run impact on his thinking through Viner's emphasis on the empirical relevance of microeconomic theory, and on the importance of testing the theory with historical and other materials. As important as was the faculty's influence, that of a remarkable collection of students was even greater. He became close friend with fellow students Milton Friedman and Allen Wallis, friendships that remained close throughout Stigler's life. He also got to know and appreciate Paul Samuelson, who was then an undergraduate at Chicago. He began his friendship with Aaron Director, which eventually blossomed into a very close one. He met a graduate

Gary S. Becker

Papers

The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle

Economic growth, inequality and population growth . The family and the state

Rates of Return from College Education

The Division of Labor, Coordination Costs, and Knowledge

George Joseph Stigler. January 11,1911 - December 1,1991