This paper analyzes how life-cycle unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of the training firm. We start from the hypotheses that the size of training firms reduces long-run cumulated unemployment exposure, e.g. via differences in training quality and in the availability of...

Consistent with two models of imperfect competition in the labor market, the efficient bargaining model and the monopsony model, we provide two extensions of a microeconomic version of Hall's framework for estimating price-cost margins. We show that both product and labor market imperfections...

Allowing for three labor market settings (perfect competition or right-to-manage bargaining, efficient bargaining and monopsony), this paper relies on an extension of Hall's econometric framework for estimating simultaneously price-cost margins and scale economies. Using an unbalanced panel of...

This paper extends Hall's (1988) methodology to analyse imperfections in both the product and the labour market for firms in the Belgian manufacturing industry over the period 1988-1995. We investigate the heterogeneity in price-cost mark-up and workers' bargaining power parameters among 18...

In September 2002, a new market in Economic Derivatives was launched allowing traders to take positions on future values of several macroeconomic data releases. We provide an initial analysis of the prices of these options. We find that market-based measures of expectations are similar to...

Institutions, social norms and the nature of industrial relations vary greatly between Latin American and Western European countries. Such institutional and organizational differences might shape firms' operational environment in general and the type of competition in product and labor markets...

Does competitive pressure foster innovation? In addressing this important question, priorstudies ignored a distinction between discrete innovation aiming at entirely new technologyand continuous improvement consisting of numerous incremental improvements andmodifications made upon the existing...

We model decisions with respect to formality or informality for entrepreneurs in a newindustry for a developing economy. We show that informality allows a leader to explore,without significant sunk costs, the potential profitability of the industry; that is, informality maybe a stepping stone,...

This paper shows that self-employment opportunities shape the market power of employers in low-income countries, with implications for industrial development. Using data from Peru, we document substantial employer concentration and high self-employment rates across manufacturing local labor...

What makes prescription drugs cost so much? The media and Congress say it is corporate greed, while pharmaceutical firms blame federal regulations and an expensive drug development process. This study focuses on R & D (R&D) expenditures at global pharmaceutical firms and explores the driving...