Brian G. M. Main, FRSE
Professor of Business Economics
Edinburgh University Business School
29 Buccleuch Street ,
Edinburgh EH8 9JS 44-(0)131-650-8360
E-mail: Brian.Main@ed.ac.uk
Background:
BSc (St Andrews); MBA (California, Berkeley); MA (California,
Berkeley); PhD (California, Berkeley).
Worked as a physicist for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
before attending the University of California, Berkeley, for his MBA.
Subsequently worked as Production Planning Manager in the pharmaceutical
industry for the Eli Lilly Corporation, before returning
to Berkeley to complete a PhD with George Akerlof.
Has been an academic at the University of Edinburgh since 1976, save
for a four year period (1987-91) when he was Chairman of
the Department of Economics at the University of St Andrews.
Has also served as Head
of Department of Economics at Edinburgh in 1991-93 and
again in 1995-97. Was Head of the Economics, Business Studies
and Accounting
and Business
Method "Planning Unit" in 1995-96, and Director of Post-Graduate
Studies in the Business School (2005-2007). Between 1995
and 2008 he was Director and then Academic Director of
The David Hume Institute.
My interests are primarily in the area sometimes known as the economics of personnel. I have recently extended my earlier interests in labour economics to cover topics such as top executive pay and corporate governance. My earlier work on labour economics in the 1980s included studies of the impact of manpower training programmes, unemployment duration, women’s working lives, discrimination, and trade union wage mark-up. The work on unemployment was joint with George Akerlof at Berkeley. George won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001.
More current projects have included analyses of the effects of boardroom subcommittees such as remuneration committees and the operation of financial instruments such as executive share options in aligning incentives. Some of my earlier work in this area (with Charles O’Reilly at Stanford University on social influence in the boardroom) has recently enjoyed a resurgence in interest in the USA, and my working partnership with Charles continues.
I have also worked on topics that span law and economics. These have involved studies of negotiation, particularly in the context of pre-trial negotiation and rules of court. Leading on from this work, I have also written on the efficiency of the organisational features of the civil legal system, some of this joint with Professor Sir Alan Peacock. During my time as Director of The David Hume Institute, I constructed and led seminar series on a variety of policy oriented issues that span law and economics. These have included a variety of themes, with many relating to the criminal and civil justice system, the financial sector, the public sector, and regulation.
My current efforts centre around top executive pay, corporate governance (with a series of papers co-authored with Professor Wen Hou), and the gender composition of boards (with papers co-authored with Dr Ian Gregory-Smith).
Has research links with:
- Department of Economics at the University of Newcastle;
- Graduate
School of Business at Stanford University, California;
- University of Murcia, Spain.
Full CV
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