An important literature has made a fundamental link between corporate governance and corporate strategy. According to agency theory, assigning managers stock options aligns their interests with the interests of the owners of the firm. This paper suggests that this may not apply in the context of...

We develop a theory of innovation for entry and sale into oligopoly, and show that inventions of higher quality are more likely to be sold (or licensed) to an incumbent due to strategic product market effects on the sales price. Such preemptive acquisitions by incumbents are shown to stimulate...

Within the policy debate, there is a fear that large incumbent firms buy small firms' inventions to ensure that they are not used in the market. We show that such "acquisitions for sleep" can occur if and only if the quality of a process invention is small; otherwise, the entry profit will be...

Recent research has underscored the prominent role played by a small fraction of fast-growing new firms in contributing to aggregate net employment growth. While it is typically assumed that those firms experience this superior performance thanks to their ability in undertaking technological...

Griechenland liegt nach wie vor wirtschaftlich am Boden. Nach massiven Senkungen seiner Lohnstückkosten hat das Land mittlerweile kein Kostenproblem mehr. Dennoch ist die griechische Wirtschaft noch nicht angesprungen. Das macht zunächst deutlich: Das Programm der Troika, sich allein auf...

This paper compares the structure and the development of new firm formation activity in three German regions. The two East German regions, Dresden and Rostock, show significantly higher start-up rates than the West German region Karlsruhe. The analysis of entry cohorts reveals that not only the...

This paper analyzes how companies of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledgeintensive industries differ from companies of native entrepreneurs with respect to start-up characteristics, firm survival and innovative performance. I focus on immigrants from the 'recruitment countries' of south and...

High levels of net migration to the UK have contributed to growing cultural diversity, and researchers are turning their attention to the long-term effects of diversity on productivity. Yet little is known about these issues. This paper asks: what are the links between the composition of firms'...