We compare the costs and benefits of partnerships relative to the corporate form of organization. We show that organizing as a partnership can be desirable in human-capital intensive industries where product quality is hard to observe. The theory explains the relative scarcity of partnerships...

When it is hard to assess product quality, firms will sub-optimally hire low ability workers. We show that organizing as a profit-sharing partnership can alleviate these problems. Our theory explains the historical prevalence of profit sharing in professional service industries such as law,...

Local governments can provide services with their own employees or by contracting with private or public sector providers. We develop a model of this "make-or-buy" choice that highlights the trade-off between productive efficiency and the costs of contract administration. We construct a dataset...

When it is hard to assess service quality, firms will suboptimally hire low ability workers. We show that organizing as a profit-sharing partnership can alleviate these problems. Our theory explains the relative scarcity of partnerships outside of professional service industries such as law,...

We compare the costs and benefits of profit-sharing partnerships relative to the corporate form of organization. We show that organizing as a partnership can be desirable in human-capital intensive industries where product quality is hard to observe. The theory explains the relative scarcity of...

Local governments can provide services with their own employees or by contracting with private or public sector providers. We develop a model of this 'make-or-buy' choice that highlights the trade-off between productive efficiency and the costs of contract administration. We construct a dataset...