Das ifo-Institut hat kürzlich eine umfangreiche Untersuchung über den strukturellen Wandel im Handel der alten Bundesländer abgeschlossen. 1988 operierten auf der Großhandelsstufe fast 65.000 Handelsvermittlungsunternehmen mit einem Gesamtumsatz von knapp 31 Mrd. DM. Von 1980 bis 1988 hat...

Fehlende und falsche Informationen über die Entwicklung der privaten Unternehmen zählen zu den größten Problemen der Wirtschaftsforschung in Rußland. Seit Ende 1991 werden in Moskau rund 140 Unternehmen, die auf dem Gebiet der privaten Vermittlung und/oder des privaten Großhandels tätig...

In Sachsen-Anhalt haben sich auf den verschiedenen Stufen des Handels nach Einführung der marktwirtschaftlichen Ordnung leistungsfähige Unternehmen herausgebildet. Auf der Einzelhandelsstufe haben die Ansiedlung preisaggressiver Angebotstypen "auf der grünen Wiese", aber auch der Erfolg der...

An Indirect Exporter is defined as a firm that sells its product to a trade intermediary in its own country, who then goes on to export the good. Despite the numerous appearances of these firms in recent theoretical models, there has been no empirical work comparing these firms to Domestic firms...

Existing studies show that intermediaries can help verify or screen product quality for buyers. This paper examines this claim both theoretically and empirically in the context of international trade. We develop a heterogeneous-firm model that features vertical and horizontal differentiations of...

When trading across borders, firms choose between dierent payment contracts. Theoretically, this should allow firms to trade-off differences in financing costs and enforcement across countries. This paper provides evidence for this hypothesis from a large number of countries. As predicted, the...

Existing studies show that intermediaries can help verify or screen product quality for buyers. This paper examines this claim both theoretically and empirically in the context of international trade. We develop a heterogeneous firm model that features vertical and horizontal differentiation of...

The business literature suggests that exporters either use trade intermediaries or own foreign sales representations. Standard trade models are silent about this choice. We develop a model where producers differ with respect to competitive advantage and where trade intermediaries arise...

The business literature and recent descriptive evidence show that exporting firms typically require the help of foreign trade intermediaries or need to set up own foreign wholesale affiliates. In contrast, conventional trade theory models assume that producers can directly access foreign...

When trading, firms choose between different payment contracts. As shown theoretically in Schmidt-Eisenlohr (forthcoming), this allows firms in international trade to optimally trade-off differences in financing costs and enforcement across countries. This paper provides evidence from a large...