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Dissertation Information for Duol Kim

NAME:
- Duol Kim

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2003)

ADVISORS:
- Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
- Naomi Lamoreaux

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- William R. Summerhill
- Kenneth L. Sokoloff

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Firm financing, ownership structure and market competition in the United States manufacturing during the nineteenth century

Abstract: This thesis analyzes the ownership structure of American manufacturing firms during the 19th century. The 19th century United States has excellent archival sources for this research agenda, the R. G. Dun & Co. Collection and the Manuscript Census of Manufactures. Chapter 2 describes the two data sources. It also introduces the two sampled counties used in the analysis, Bristol and Essex County, Massachusetts.

Chapter 3 explores the dynamics of the firm population by studying business failure during the 19th century. The estimation of the exit rate suggests that the exit rate during the 19th century was much higher and more volatile than that of the 20th century. Furthermore, even the medium size firms of the 19th century had higher rates of exit than the average firm of the post-WWII period. One important source of this pattern is smaller firm size. This raises questions on why entrepreneurs did not pool their resources and increase firm size, which leads us to investigate the ownership structure of the firm.

Chapter 4 studies the ownership structure of the firm by inquiring into the popularity of partnership during this period. It is widely believed that partnerships are optimal only for firms in special industries. However, the data demonstrates that about 20-40% of firms in every industry were organized as partnerships. This chapter claims that partnership was adopted mainly for overcoming resource constraints. Size distribution, geographical distribution, and growth pattern all support this argument.

Chapter 5 explores the ownership structure of the jewelry producers in the Providence/Attleboro (P/A) area. Due to the differentiated nature of the product, the P/A producers needed to perform active promotion to the wholesalers in New York. This condition motivated the entrepreneurs to organize partnerships to ameliorate the informational asymmetry and mobilize resources to achieve economies of scale related to sales. Evidence from the address of copartners and share of family partnerships is more favorable to the resource mobilization factor, which is consistent with the result from Chapter 4.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the interaction between ownership structure of the firm, financial markets, and industrial conditions. Chapter 6 summarizes the dissertation and proposes future research.

MPACT Scores for Duol Kim

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-12 11:32:59

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Students under Duol Kim

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None