Recent empirical research documents a tendency of affiliates of multinational enterprises to bunch around zero reported profit. Setting up a model that allows for profitable and loss-making affiliates of multinationals, we show that profit shifting to a low-tax country as well as a loss-related,...

We partnered with a micro-lender in Mali to randomize credit offers at the village level. Then, in no-loan control villages, we gave cash grants to randomly selected households. These grants led to higher agricultural investments and profits, thus showing that liquidity constraints bind with...

This paper investigates whether an incumbent has an incentive to introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities only as a response to entry by a competitor who cannot provide CSR (credibly) due to its lack of recognition, at least at the outset. More precisely, this paper shows that...

This paper presents a linear-city model where firms compete on price and levels of advertising, which affects the perceived utility of products. More cost efficient firms extend their advantage with more advertising, which leads to higher profits, if advertising is sufficiently effective. We...

This paper presents a linear-city model where firms compete on price and levels of advertising, which affects the perceived utility of products. More cost efficient firms extend their advantage with more advertising, which leads to higher profits, if advertising is sufficiently effective. We...

This paper examines the relationship between airline profitability and market share in the context of contemporary strategic business theory.The paper provides a general overview of the business environment in which airlines operate, provides some of the organizational goals airlines pursue, and...

This paper shows that the mathematics of the neoclassical theory of the firm is inconsistent, that constant returns-to-scale is a linear algebra misspecification, that minimum average cost is not an efficiency measure, and that the short run marginal cost curve is not a supply curve. A...

We discuss the nonparametric approach to profit efficiency analysis at the firm and industry levels in the absence of complete price information, and propose two new insights. First, choosing one commodity (whose price is known) as a numeraire good enables us to measure profit inefficiency in...

The cross-sectional variation in corporate profitability has occupied research across fields as diverse as strategic management, industrial organization, finance, and accounting. Prior work suggests that industry affiliation as well as different forms of corporate idiosyncrasies are important...

Prior research provides mixed evidence on whether corporate lobbying activities increase or decrease shareholder value. In this study we use detailed data on corporate lobbying expenditures to investigate which factors influence the returns to corporate lobbying activities. Specifically, we...