In many sectors property rights over knowledge and information are weak as they are embodied in employees, competitors can copy or customers can pirate. Yet comprehensive studies show that firms systematically invest in these assets. We offer a simple taxonomy of strategies that firms use to...

Spending on necessary infrastructure is likely to be cut back in coming decades, as the federal and state governments struggle with large debt burdens. This will hamper future growth, particularly given the dismal state of current infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates...

We examine the economics of infrastructure finance, focusing on public provision and public-private partnerships (PPPs). We show that project finance is appropriate for PPP projects, because there are few economies of scope and assets are project specific. Furthermore, we suggest that the higher...

Este trabajo describe en forma sistemática los montos renegociados en las 50 concesiones cuyos datos han sido publicados por el MOP en su página web. Nuestra principal conclusión es que las renegociaciones son frecuentes y que involucran montos considerables. En promedio, cada concesión ha...

Consider a bottleneck monopoly whose access change is regulated above marginal cost and provides access to an oligopoly of downstream firms. Should the monopolist be allowed to vertically integrate into the downstream market? For the general run of oligopolistic market structures, we show that a...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly used to provide infrastructure services. Even though PPPs have the potential to increase efficiency and improve resource allocation, contract renegotiations have been pervasive. We show that existing accounting standards allow governments to...

Esta nota estudia los determinantes de la tasa de descuento apropiada para fijar peajes de transmisión. Para ello se desarrolla un modelo simple que permite descomponerla en una suma de la tasa libre de riesgo y el premio por riesgo. Los principios generales son dos: (a) la tasa de descuento...

Este trabajo evalúa los pro y contra de la integración vertical en el sector eléctrico. Las principales conclusiones son las siguientes: (i) si bien la integración vertical no es mala per se, la mayoría de sus ventajas surgen cuando existen monopolios separados de transmisión y...