Based upon the structure-conduct-performance approach the present paper analyses determinants of price-cost-margins over the business cycle for food industries in Germany, the USA as well as the Netherlands. Controlling for market structure variables, cyclical fluctuations in profitability are...

We show the nuetrality of coalition formation in the sequential bargaining game a la Stahl-Binmore-Rubinstein with random proposers. To that end, we juxtapose an ex-ante coalition formation stage to their bargaining game. Based on the expected outcomes in the negotiation over how to split a...

Events such as plant creation, closure, and relocation have a considerable effect on employment. This paper looks specifically at plant transfers from urban to periurban or rural areas. First we propose an analytic framework derived from New Economic Geography models. The paper then presents a...

A semi-parametric approach is used to estimate firm propensity to exit. The unobserved individual productivity of a firm is first estimated using the Ackerberg et al. (2006) approach and then introduced as a determinant of firm exit in conjunction with other variables that may serve as barriers...