Principal-agent problem in family-owned businesses

Principal-agent problem in family-owned businesses

Sam Choon Yin
September 2003


Understanding individuals¡¯ behaviour is not easy. Some economists make it the easy way out by making assumptions about human behaviour that are difficult to apply in reality. Some have gone beyond the orthodox way and attempt to predict human behaviour through making more realistic assumptions. Jack Knetsch, Bruno Frey, Ng Yew Kwang, Robert Frank, Tibor Scitovsky, Richard A. Easterlin, Vernon Smith, Gary Becker, William Vickery, James Mirrless, Herbert Simon, George Akerlof, Michael Spencer and Joseph Stiglitz are some of the better-known economists who have gone beyond orthodox economics.
Vernon Smith, Gary Becker, Herbert Simon, William Vickery, James Mirrless, George Akerlof, Michael Spencer and Joseph Stiglitz have won the prestigious Nobel Prize thus giving a welcome recognition to ¡®provide some support those who are willing to extend orthodox economics and to explore areas beyond or e...