This paper reexamines Grossman and Hart's (1980) insight into how the free-rider problem excludes an external raider from capturing the increase in value it brings to a firm. The inability of the raider to capture any of the surplus depends critically on the assumption of equal and indivisible...

We analyze twenty years of personnel data from one firm. The hierarchical structure is quite simple and stable. Career movements suggest that the employee's rate of learning and the firm's learning about ability are important. There are promotion 'fast tracks.' Exit rates vary little with tenure...

Salary data from a single firm are analyzed in an effort to identify the firm's wage policy. The authors find that employees are partly shielded against changes in external market conditions; that wage variation within a job level is large both cross-sectionally and for individuals over time,...

The U.S. corporate governance system has recently been heavily criticized, largely as a result of failures at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and some other prominent companies. Those failures and criticisms, in turn, have served as catalysts for legislative change (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and...