Background
MALCOMSON, James Martin was born in 1946 in Staunton-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England.
MALCOMSON, James Martin was born in 1946 in Staunton-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England.
Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1967, 1971. Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy Harvard University, 1969, 1973.
Teaching Fellow Economics, Harvard University, 1969-1971. Ellis Hunter Memorial Fellow Economics, Lector, Senior Lector Economics, University York, 1971-1972, 1972-1973, 1983-1985. Visiting Fellow Economics, University Catholique de Louvain, 19834.
Professor of Economics, University Southampton, Southampton, England.
My early research was concerned with vintage models of production, especially the implications of these models for the understanding of obsolescence, replacement and utilisation of capital equipment, and the impact of tax policy on these. This research involved theoretical explorations of the nature of vintage models. lieutenant also involved empirical investigations in which I was particularly concerned to avoid an assumption either that the service life time of capital equipment was given technologically or that it was constant through time.
Only in this way can one satisfactorily explore the effects of tax policy on replacement and hence on investment. My empirical research on production led me to the view that it is crucial to develop a better insight into the labour side of the production process if economists are to understand the working of economies. This has influenced the direction of my recent research.
My interest here has been to provide a better theoretical understanding of the role of such organisational structures as hierarchies and internal labour markets, the impact of trade unions, and the reasons for unemployment of a genuinely involuntary nature. In this work I have been particularly concerned with issues of incentives and control in an environment in which crucial pieces of information are not common knowledge and hence with the analysis of employment contracts with informal or implicit elements, the legal enforcement of which is difficult or impossible.