Recent evidence has shown that entrants into self-employment are disproportionately drawn from the tails of the earnings and ability distributions. This observation is explained by a multitask model of occupational choice in which frictions in the labor market induce mismatches between firms and...

This paper produces new estimates of the rate of organizational forgetting in the well-known case study of U.S. wartime ship production. Estimates obtained using data constructed from primary sources at the National Archives yield rates of forgetting that are much smaller than previously...

Entry by spinoffs from incumbent firms is investigated for the laser industry. A model in which spinoffs exploit knowledge from their parents is constructed to explain the market conditions conducive to spinoffs, the types of firms that spawn spinoffs, and the relationship of spinoffs to their...

Conventional learning curves relating unit cost to measures of production experience are estimated for 221 specialty chemicals produced by a Fortune 500 company. Detailed records on cost and R...D coupled with insights from company personnel are used to explain the variation across products in...

The agglomeration of the automobile industry around Detroit, Michigan is explained using a theory in which disagreements lead employees of incumbent firms to found spinoffs in the same industry. Predictions of the theory concerning entry and firm survival are tested using data on the origin,...