Why people pool their resources to form firms, and why cells join together into organisms, are fundamental questions in economics and biology, respectively. They may appear as distinct issues on the surface, but they effectively deal with the same phenomenon: collective agency. Central to the functionality of both firms and organisms is the question of what holds them together to such an extent as to allow them to act as one. Any collective agent, be it a firm or a multicellular organism, needs to find ways of managing internal conflicts. While work in biology and economics has devoted much attention to the benefits of initially coming together, less effort has gone into analyzing how collective agency is subsequently maintained in the face of internal conflicts. 

This workshop is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed at the workshop are those of the speakers and not those of the John Templeton Foundaiton.