Buying to Sell: A Theory of Buyouts

Private equity owned firms have more leverage, more intense compensation contracts, and higher productivity than comparable firms. We develop a theory of buyouts in oligopolistic markets that explains these facts. Private equity firms are more aggressive in inducing restructuring compared to incumbents since they maximize a trade sale price. The equilibrium trade sale price increases …

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Scientific Management Taylorism, Abuse of Scientific Management

Frederick Winslow Taylor is a controversial figure in management history. His innovations in industrial engineering, particularly in time and motion studies, paid off in dramatic improvements in productivity. Under Taylor’s management system, factories are managed through scientific methods rather than by use of the empirical “rule of thumb” so widely prevalent in the days of …

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