Recent U.S. legislation (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) allows commercial banks to enter merchant banking, i.e. hold equity in non-financial firms. A stylised auction-theoretic model is developed to investigate the effects of bank equity stakes in firms on the competition in bank loans. The main...

The paper first demonstrates that in a simple asymmetric n-country world with Cournot competition, constant returns and linear demand, free trade can reduce world welfare as well as total output and consumer surplus. We then derive precise conditions for free trade to raise a country's welfare,...

This paper investigates the pass-through of an excise tax imposed on a monopoly firm with constant marginal cost. The optimal price increases as tax increases for any demand function. Tax pass-through is globally under or in excess of 100% according as the direct demand function is log-concave...

This note corrects some oversights in Dong and Yuan (2010). We show, in particular, that their condition for intra-industry trade to reduce global welfare can never be satisfied. Using a new example, we demonstrate that, nevertheless, their fundamental insight remains correct: Under Cournot...

The paper derives clear-cut and robust conclusions on the effects of sharing firm-specific information in general linear oligopoly. In Cournot (Bertrand) oligopoly, revealing (concealing) firm-specific cost information is the dominant strategy for each firm. In both competition modes firms have...

The paper analyses the organisation of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) management in the chemicals manufacturing industry, focussing in particular on the implementation of the “Responsible Care” framework and the concept of “Product Stewardship”. We conduct in depth interviews...

Consider a marketing division of a monopoly that faces two marketing options: market enlargement and elasticity improvement. These options are conceived in terms of the target of the firm's advertising campaigns: potential new consumers versus existing consumers. Using a CES demand function in a...

This paper considers the competitive effects of funding and collaboration alliances between established corporations and entrepreneurial potential rivals. We develop a formal setting to explore how in the presence of mutual agency conflicts, (i) cost efficiencies from resource sharing, (ii) the...