The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the reasons why firms do often adopt inefficient technologies even when superior ones are widely available, and to assess their consequences. From a macroeconomic perspective it has been emphasized that differences in the adoption and diffusion...

This paper considers a dynamic matching model with imperfectly observable worker effort. In equilibrium, the wage distribution is truncated from below by a no-shirking condition. This downward wage rigidity induces the same type of inefficient churning and "contractual fragility" as in Ramey and...

Hintergrund der Untersuchung ist die zunehmende Bedeutung von Humankapital als wettbewerbsentscheidendem Produktionsfaktor in modernen humankapitalintensiven Unternehmungen. Es stellt sich die Frage nach den Auswirkungen der Bedeutungszunahme und der Regelung des „Primärhumankapitals“, also...

Academicians and practitioners are becoming increasingly interested inthe economics of Information Technology (IT). In part, this intereststems from the increased role that IT now plays in the strategicthinking of most large organizations, and from the significant dollarcosts expended by these...

The aim of this paper is to explain Australian R&D capitalisation and voluntary disclosure. It is argued that the discretionary choices available to management in Australia with respect to the accounting for and the disclosure of R&D expenditure and activities can be explained by the reduction...

The theory of Agency, specifically that developed by Jesen and Meckling (1976), will be the subject of examination. Agency theory has been the subject of extensive research since its introduction in modern form by Jensen and Meckling (1976). The generality of the theory of Agency appears...

Two complementary sources of information are studied in a multiperiod agency model. One is an accounting source which partially but credibly conveys the agent’s private information through accounting recognition. The other is an unverified communication by the agent (i.e., a self-report). In a...