Abstract
When both management skills and labor skills differ in the population, the nature of firm formation can differ radically from the equilibrium we are used to dealing with: The best potential managers could end up as wage workers. This happens when managerial skills are positively correlated with working skills, and there is some empirical evidence that this is indeed the case.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Benhabib, Jess, Rogerson Richard, and Randall Wright, 1991, ‘Homework in Macroeconomics: Household Production and Aggregation Fluctuations’,Journal of Political Economy 99(6), 1166–87.
Boeri, Tito and Ulrich Kramer, 1993, ‘Employment Growth, Incumbents and Entrants: Evidence from Germany’,International Journal of Industrial Organization 10, forthcoming.
Chapman, Kenneth and Lawrence Southwick, 1991, ‘Testing the Matching Hypothesis: The Case of Major League Baseball’,American Economic Review 81(5), 1352–60.
Chari, V. V. and Hugo Hopenhayn, 1991, ‘Vintage Human Capital Growth, and the Diffusion of Technology’,Journal of Political Economy 99(6), 1142–65.
Evans, David and Boyan Jovanovic, 1989, ‘An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints’,Journal of Political Economy 97(4), 808–27.
Evans, David and Linda Leighton, 1989, ‘Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship’,American Economic Review 79(3), 519–35.
Goto, Akira, 1981, ‘Statistical Evidence on the Diversification of Japanese Large Firms’,Journal of Industrial Economics 29(3), 271–78.
Greenwood, Jeremy and Zvi Hercowitz, 1991, ‘The Allocation of Capital and Time Over the Business Cycle’,Journal of Political Economy 99(6), 1188–1214.
Hall, Robert, 1980, ‘Employment Fluctuations and Wage Rigidity’,Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 91–123.
Harris, Milton and Bengt Holmstrom, 1982, ‘A Theory of Wage Dynamics’,Review of Economic Studies 49(3), 315–34.
Heckman, James and Bo Honoré, 1990, ‘The Empirical Content of the Roy Model’,Econometrica 58(5), 1121–50.
Holmes, Thomas and James Schmitz, 1990, ‘A Theory of Entrepreneurship and Its Application to the Study of Business Transfers’,Journal of Political Economy 98(2), 265–94.
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, David Joulfaian and Harvey Rosen, 1992, ‘Entrepreneurial Decisions and Liquidity Constraints’, unpublished paper, Princeton University, February.
Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982, ‘Selection and the Evolution of Industry’,Econometrica 50, 649–70.
Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982a, ‘Favorable Selection with Asymmetric Information’,Quarterly Journal of Economics, 535–39.
Jovanovic, Boyan and Robert Moffitt, 1990, ‘An Estimate of a Sectoral Model of Labor Mobility’,Journal of Political Economy 98(4), 827–52.
Kanbur, S. M., 1979, ‘Of Risk Taking and the Personal Distribution of Income’,Journal of Political Economy 87(4), 769–97.
Kihlstrom, Richard and Jean-Jacques Laffont, 1979, ‘A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion’,Journal of Political Economy 87(4), 719–48.
Kruger, Anne, 1968, ‘Factor Endowments and Per Capita Income Differences among Countries’,Economic Journal, 641–59.
Lippman, Steven and Richard Rummelt, 1982, ‘Uncertain Immitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency Under Competition’,Bell Journal of Economics 13(2), 418–38.
Lucas, Robert E., 1978, ‘On the Size Distribution Business Firms’,Bell Journal of Economics, 508–23.
Nelson, Ralph, 1959,Merger Movements in American Industry, 1895–1956, NBER, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Panzar, John and Robert Willig, 1978, ‘On the Comparative Statics of a Competitive Industry and Inframarginal Firms’,American Economic Review 68(3), 474–78.
Rosen, Sherwin and Robert Willis, 1979, ‘Education and Self-Selection’,Journal of Political Economy 87(5), pt. 2, S7-S36.
Rosen, Sherwin, 1983, ‘A Note on Aggregation of Skills and Labor Quality’,Journal of Human Resources 18(3), 425–31.
Roy, A. D., 1951, ‘Some Thoughts on the Distribution of Earnings’,Oxford Economic Papers (3), 135–46.
Welch, Finis, 1969, ‘Linear Synthesis of Skill Distributions’,Journal of Human Resources (4), 311–27.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jovanovic, B. Firm formation with heterogeneous management and labor skills. Small Bus Econ 6, 185–191 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01108287
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01108287