Markets and Society
Submitted by: Brayden King
Recommended texts:
Abramson, Bruce. 2005. Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How it Will Rise Again. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Dobbin, Frank, editor. 2004. The New Economic Sociology: A Reader. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Healy, Kieran. 2006. Last Best Gifts: Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Shiller, Robert. 2005. Irrational Exuberance, 2nd Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Surowiecki, James. 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Anchor Books.
Week 1: What is a market?
January 9: Introduction to class
Jan 11: Markets
Reading: Lindblom, Charles. 2001. Pp. 19-51 in The Market System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Week 2: Information and collective decision-making
Jan 16: Smart crowds
Reading: Surowiecki, pp. 1-65
Jan 18: Decentralized coordination
Reading: Surowiecki, pp. 66-107
Week 3: The stock market bubble
Jan 23: Precipitating factors of the bubble
Reading: Shiller, pp. 1-81
Jan 25: Cultural factors
Reading: Shiller, pp. 85-143
Memo 1 assigned
Week 4: Behavioral economics
Jan 30: The psychology of the market
Readings: Shiller, pp. 147-173
&
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. 2004. Pp. 77-92 in Fooled by Randomness. New York: Texere.
Memo 1 due
Feb 1: The efficient market hypothesis and its discontents
Reading: Shiller, pp. 177-230
Week 5: Institutions and markets
Feb 6: Institutional antecedents to capitalism
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 2
Memo due
Feb 8: The legal underpinnings of capitalism
Reading: De Soto, Hernando. 2000. Chp. 3 in The Mystery of Capital. New York: Basic Books.
&
Abramson, pp. 28-49
Week 6: Competition and control
Feb 13: Antitrust and market control
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 15
&
Abramson, pp. 51-79
Feb 15: The market behavior of Microsoft
Reading: Abramson, pp. 111-170
Midterm exam review
Week 7: Midterm
Feb 20: No class – Monday schedule due to holiday
Feb 22: Midterm exam
Week 8: Cooperation, competition, and control
Feb 27: Incentives and designing cooperation
Reading: Surowiecki, pp. 108-172
March 1: Centralized decision-making
Reading: Surowiecki, pp. 173-223
Memo 2 assigned
Week 9: Networks and exchange
March 6: Embeddedness
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 9
Memo 2 due
March 8: Embedded capital
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 10 and 13
Week 10: The social structure of competition
March 13: Structural holes
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 12
March 15: Structure and identity
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 11
Week 11: Institutional theory
March 20: Isomorphism and decoupling
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 3 and 4
March 22: Institutionalization of organizational forms
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 7
Week 12: Culture and exchange
March 27: Cultural conceptions of value
Reading: Dobbin, chp. 5
&
Healy, pp. 1-22
Case study outline due
March 29: Altruism
Reading: Healy, pp. 23-69
Memo 3 assigned
Week 13: The organization of markets
April 3: The organizations of blood and organ donation
Reading: Healy, pp. 70-132
Memo 3 due
April 5: The organization of underground markets
Reading: Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi and Steven D. Levitt. “’Are we a family or a business?’ History and disjuncture in the urban American street gang.” Theory and Society 29: 427-462.
Week 14: Economics and exchange
April 10: Economics as a self-fulfilling prophecy
Reading: Ferraro, Fabrizio, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Robert Sutton. 2005. “Economics Language and Assumptions: How Theories Can Become Self-Fulfilling.” Academy of Management Review. 30: 8-24.
April 12: Non-economic exchange
Reading: Abramson, pp. 171-240.
Week 15: Review
April 17: Final exam review
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