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.