We examine the effect of uncertainty on horizontal mergers, considering that firms must decide whether to merge before observing the realized cost of the merged firm. The existing literature clarifies that merging firms facing cost uncertainty decide to merge if expected efficiency gains or...

We examine coal contract duration using data on utility coal buyers and supplying mines in the Powder River Basin. Duration determinants are (1) measures of buyers' and sellers' transaction-specific investments and (2) trading and market experience. The results largely support transaction-cost...

This article explores the role of social capital created by social network membership in the small-firm sector in developing countries. Some empirical studies find that social capital hampers economic performance by creating market segmentation and inducing rent-seeking activities. Other studies...

In this paper the transaction cost approach of Oliver E. Williamson is applied to the long-run evolution of the provision of physical assets to the organized securities markets of London and New York. Although this evolution is shown to be in general compliance with the predictions of the...

This paper analyzes, in a setup where only the control over actions is contractible, the rationale for delegation. An organization must take two decisions. The payoffs are affected by a random parameter, and only the agent knows its realization. If the principal delegates the control over the...

It has been shown by Sah and Stiglitz [1986, 1988] that organizational form crucially affects societal information aggregation. This paper demonstrates that organizational form also crucially affects the incentives to acquire information. It is shown that relative allocative properties of...

This paper compares benefits and costs related to hierarchical and decentralized organizations in an agency framework. We show that the relative efficiency of hierarchy diminishes in contexts with asymmetric information. When effort is not observable, performance-related pay is required in order...

We demonstrate that a multi-period model, and the valuations it implies, is essential for understanding inefficiency in cooperative organizational forms. Investment is efficient given the supply of input, but economic inefficiency arises because of over-supply of input induced by suppliers...

We consider the effect of the regulation of telephony on Haan's [2001] analysis of the economics of free Internet access. Haan considers an unregulated market, and finds that free Internet access is compatible with an efficient outcome and avoids the double marginalization problem. We find that...

Authority is modeled as the right to undertake a noncontractible decision in a joint project. The decision-maker is assumed to exert an externality on the other parties; overall surplus is shared according to generalized Nash bargaining. Under limited liability, the agent whose marginal costs...