Economics 386

The Economics of Organization

R. N. Langlois

Spring 2001

Assignment 2

Drawing on what is essentially the Jensen and Meckling theory of principals and agents, Henry Hansmann has put together what he views as a general theory of the cooperative form of organization. In this account, even the modern corporation is a special case of the cooperative (Why?) A non-profit is also a type of cooperative.

Your assignment is to analyze one particular non-profit: the research university. To make things easier, you can think in terms of private research universities. You should be able to go beyond Hansmann’s own terse discussion of colleges.

Due: February 26