The aim of the Nordic Initiative for Corporate Economics (“NICE”) is to create a forum for interaction for the various branches of economics and management science which study the corporation.
The modern corporation is at the heart of much economic activity, yet no single branch of economics is dedicated to studying it. Instead, the study of corporations is fragmented across various branches of economics and management science (such as industrial organization, labor, trade, corporate finance, accounting, and the economics of innovation and entrepreneurship), each of which approaches the study of corporations from a different perspective. The resulting multitude of perspectives could be both academically productive and intellectually enriching were it not for the fact that scholars of corporations currently lack an organized way of interacting with and learning from each other, outside their narrow branch of economics or management science. Our aim is to change this, by fostering interaction and cross-fertilization among scholars of corporations, regardless of the particular branch they hail from. In the process, we have coined the term “corporate economics”, which we hope will provide a focal point for collaborative research on corporations.
We anticipate that research on corporations will be enriched by exposure to and interaction with scholars of corporations outside one’s own branch of economics or management science. To this end, NICE plans to organize a series of annual by-invitation-only conferences to bring together leading scholars from each relevant branch of economics and management science in the Nordics and internationally, as well as junior researchers, in a setting that maximizes the chances for impromptu interaction.