Essays on Entrepreneurship and Social Change

Olga Nicoara

Advisor: Peter J Boettke, PhD, Department of Economics

Committee Members: Christopher J. Coyne, Paul D. Aligica

Enterprise Hall, #318
April 21, 2014, 10:00 AM to 07:00 AM

Abstract:

This dissertation contributes to the literature on dynamic choice in market and other, non-market settings. Formal economic theory is not equipped to address processes of economic and social change. A narrow rationality assumption confines a social theorist to comparative statics, and exogenous explanations. I conduct historical and ethnographic research and find evidence that supports an endogenous, entrepreneurial theory of economic and social change. I present how a theory of entrepreneurial discovery complements the existing tools of economic analysis.