In this paper we analyze firms' ability to tacitly collude on pricesin an infinitely repeated duopoly game of vertical productdifferentiation. We show that firms collude if and only if their discountfactor is high enough, i.e. if they value future profits sufficiently. We alsoshow that a lower...

This paper examines whether Working Capital Management (WCM) is sensitive to market imperfections such as asymmetric information, agency conflicts or financial distress. We find that firms have a target investment in working capital and that they take decisions in order to achieve this. In...

This study analyses the evolution of market power in the banking sectors of the European Union based on the estimation of Lerner indices. Using a panel of 18,810 observations of the banking industries of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom during the period 1992-99, the results...

Financial integration in Europe should affect the competition between markets and intermediaries and generate a convergence of both interest rates and margins among the different countries. This paper analyses the evolution of the convergence in interest rates and the level of competition and...

The aim of this paper is to examine the evidence for capital-skilled labor complementarity in six different activity sectors using aggregate production function specifications and a time-series, cross-section panel of Spanish regions. Estimation results have troubles finding evidence that...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the corporate cash holding for a sampleof companies listed in the Spanish stock market. The results show that the firms have acorporate cash holding target level, and that this level is greater in companies withgreater cash flows. On the other hand, cash...

Competition has long been regarded as productivity enhancing. Understanding the mechanism by which competition affects innovation and productivity is therefore an important topic for economic policy. The main contribution of this paper is to disentangle the relationship between competition and...

This paper examines the empirical relevance of an intertemporal model of consumption with dynamically inconsistent decision makers. The model has testable implications concerning the relation between the consumers' degrees of short-run patience (self-control) and their consumption-saving...

This paper examines whether and how changes in the price of goods consumed in conjunction with leisure time influence the life-cycle allocation of work effort by part of prime-age males. For the U.S., individual-level data is combined with Metropolitan Area-level price indices of recreation...

In this paper, we show that downstream mergers increase the incentives of an up-stream firm to invest in cost-reducing R&D. The upstream firm revenues increase with industry profits, which in turn increase with concentration downstream and this explains the positive link between concentration...