Edith Penrose

Edith Penrose
Born(1914-11-15)November 15, 1914
Los Angeles, United States
DiedOctober 11, 1996(1996-10-11) (aged 81)
Known forResource-based view
Academic background
EducationUniversity of California at Berkeley
Johns Hopkins University
ThesisThe Economics of the International Patent System (1951)
Doctoral advisorFritz Machlup
Academic work
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins University
Baghdad University
London School of Economics
School of Oriental and African Studies
INSEAD
Notable worksThe theory of the growth of the firm

Edith Elura Tilton Penrose (November 15, 1914 – October 11, 1996) was an American-born British economist whose best known work is The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, which describes how firms grow and how quickly they do so. Writing in The Independent, the economist Sir Alec Cairncross stated that the book brought Dr. Penrose "instant recognition as a creative thinker, and its importance to the analysis of the job of management has been increasingly realized".