Business Evolution and Market Dynamics

This course deals with how businesses and markets have evolved over time. The six-week course is divided into six themes focused on the evolution of businesses and markets, and the role of networks, institutions, culture and technology in their evolution. Each week is discussed in detail covering topics as diverse as the persistence of merchant guilds in medieval Europe, the historical emergence of the modern impersonal markets, and their promised benefits in comparison to traditional systems of business and the influence of pre-colonial institutions on development in Africa and Asia.

The course also deals with how businesses could overcome frictions of information asymmetry and moral hazards. We first explore the role of networks and hierarchy in shaping traditional and modern business, and then discuss the historical evolution of the firm, from individual merchants and guilds to large multinational corporations. We discuss the importance and limits of formal institutions, the role of trust and cosmopolitan culture, and the impact of communication, transport and mass-media technologies.

The course is designed with the following specific objectives and learning outcomes:

Learn the role of a dense network of relationships in Traditional Business.

Understand the formalization of business over time from craft guilds to formal markets.

Describe how the social structure of a society affects the growth of the market.

Explain a historical perspective of how markets evolve.

Analyse various policies of business and market; role of institutions, cultural ingredients, and technology in the development process.

Study of the economy focusing exclusively on India.