clair015

There is no denying that women get paid less for doing the exact same jobs as men. Ample research has persistently shown that the wages of women, irrespective of qualifications and experience, are lower for the same kind of work. The only thing to be debated is “why?” Some researchers have suggested that people who conclude from this finding that women are discriminated against jump too hastily to that conclusion, because the underlying reasons could be more complex and subtle than that. We should be more cheerful, and not immediately make such sinister inferences. The story of firm specific skills Instead, their explanation hinges on “firm specific skills”. With firm specific skills we mean the experiences and qualifications that employees may build up over time that are particularly valuable to the person’s employer, because it concerns knowledge about its specific product portfolio, a technology particularly crucial for the firm, relationships with its most important customers, etc....

The inclination to imitate others is part of human nature. We imitation our peers’ habits, speech, behaviour, taste in clothing and music, and so on. Top executives, making decisions on the strategies of their corporations, are no different. There is evidence from research that companies imitate each other when it comes to the choice of organizational structure, CEO remuneration, acquisition premiums, plant location, foreign market entry decisions, and so on. As a consequence, in many industries, we end up with a large number of firms doing pretty much the same things, and in the same way. However, this inclination to imitate does not only stem from top executives’ personal propensities and uncertainties; sometimes companies are forced to do similar things and act in similar ways, even if these ways are detrimental. Forced to act alike For example, research by professors Benner from the University of Minnesota and Tushman from the Harvard Business School showed that the implementatio...

The United Kingdom has a proud tradition of delivering projects way behind schedule and way over budget. For example, the new Wembley stadium in London, which opened in 2007, was originally scheduled to open in 2003. It was also about $450 million over budget. Similarly, the Jubilee Line extension to the London Underground system cost $5.3 billion instead of the estimated $3.2 billion, and was almost two years late; likewise for the prestigious Millennium Bridge covering the Thames; Sadler’s Wells theatre in Islington; the list goes on and on. But at least it is not as bad as the (in)famous mother of all planning disasters: The Sydney Opera House. This was scheduled to open in 1963 at a cost of $7 million. Eventually, it opened in 1973 and cost $102 million. But I guess that’s simply because all Australians are really British descendants with a gene for criminality. Anyway… of course there is nothing British about all this. The same happens in many countries, and to most individuals. W...