The Theory of the Firm presents a path-breaking general framework for understanding the economics of the firm. The book addresses why firms exist, how firms are established, and what contributions firms make to the economy. The book presents a new theoretical analysis of the foundations of microeconomics that makes institutions endogenous. Entrepreneurs play a central economic role by establishing firms. In turn, firms create and operate markets and organizations. The book provides innovative models of economic equilibrium that endogenously determine the structure and function of economic institutions. The book proposes an "intermediation hypothesis" - the establishment of firms depends on the effects of transaction costs and on the extent of the market.
Daniel F. Spulber is the Elinor Hobbs Distinguished Professor of International Business and Professor of Management Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he has taught since 1990. He is also Professor of Law at the Northwestern University Law School (Courtesy). He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1979 and his M.A. in economics in 1976 from Northwestern University and his B.A. in economics in 1974 from the University of Michigan. Spulber has taught at Brown University, the University of Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology.
Spulber has received eight National Science Foundation grants, three Searle Fund Grants , and two Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Grants for economic research. Spulber is the founding editor of the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy published by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Spulber is the founder of Kellogg's International Business & Markets Program. Spulber's research is in the areas of International Economics, Industrial Organization, Microeconomic Theory, Management Strategy, and Law. He has published numerous journal articles in economics journals and law reviews, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Rand Journal of Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Columbia Law Review, New York University Law Review, Harvard Journal on Law and Public Policy, Journal of Competition Law & Economics, and Yale Journal on Regulation.
Spulber is the author of twelve books: The Theory of the Firm: Microeconomics with Endogenous Entrepreneurs, Firms, Markets, and Organizations, 2009, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Economics & Management of Competitive Strategy, 2009, New Jersey: World Scientific Press, Networks in Telecommunications: Economics and Law with Christopher Yoo, 2009, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Global Competitive Strategy, 2007, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Management Strategy, 2004, McGraw Hill; Famous Fables of Economics: Myths of Market Failures, edited, 2002, Blackwell Publishing; Market Microstructure: Intermediaries and the Theory of the Firm 1999, Cambridge University Press; The Market Makers: How Leading Companies Create and Win Markets, 1998, McGraw-Hill/ Business Week Books; Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract: The Competitive Transformation of Network Industries in the United States with J. Gregory Sidak, 1997, Cambridge University Press; Protecting Competition from the Postal Monopoly with J. Gregory Sidak, 1996, American Enterprise Institute; Regulation and Markets, 1989, M.I.T. Press; and Essays in the Economics of Renewable Resources, edited with Leonard J. Mirman, 1982, Elsevier-North Holland.
