The emergence of powerful, big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot has enhanced the interest among both academics and non-academics in the effects of countervailing power. One of the major concerns expressed by some commentators is that rising countervailing power will lead to poorer...

In this paper, we model networks of relational contracts. We explore sanctioning power within these networks under different information technologies depending on the shape of the network. The value of the relational network lies in the enforcement of cooperative agreements which would not be...

Leniency programs reduce sanctions for law violators that self-report. We focus on their ability to deter cartels and organized crime by increasing incentives to "cheat" on partners. Optimally designed "courageous" leniency programs reward the first party that reports with the fines paid by all...

Many commodities are such that the utility they create for individual consumers depends positively on the number of people also consuming these goods. Prominent examples among others are mobile phones, game consoles, and computer software. The customers form a network, where the size of the...

This paper studies the strategic value of delegation in dynamic interactions, where principals provide managers with intertemporal incentives in order to obtain a competitive advantage. While direct management offers intertemporal commitment opportunities, the separation of ownership from...

This paper studies imperfect price competition between two intermediaries in an electronic business-to-business matching market with indirect network externalities. The intermediaries differ with regard to their ownership structure: an independent third party incumbent marketplace competes with...

Cournot oligopoly has been studied almost exclusively under the implicit assumption of perfectly competitive factor markets. However,oligopolistic firms procure often factors of production from imperfectly competitive markets. Okuguchi(1998,2000) has analyzed Cournot oligopoly under the...

This paper investigates the economic principles underlying the relationship between the real sector (non-financial) and the banking sector structures. Most literature has so far focused on the structure of conglomerates (Keiretsu/Chaebol) in East Asia in explaining the fast economic growth...

We analyze local content requirement (LCR) and tariff in a two-country model of vertical market-structure with endogenous foreign direct investment (FDI). The foreign firm chooses whether to export or to undertake FDI. The host country anticipates the potential for FDI and selects tariff with or...

In this paper, an infinitely-repeated Bertrand game is considered. The model has a two-tier relationship; two firms make a self-enforced collusive agreement and each firm writes a law-enforced contract to its privately-informed agent. The main finding is that in optimal collusion, interaction...