I study the effects of minority equity ownership by firms in their trade partners. Passive ownership promotes relationship-specific investments by both parties and increases the joint surplus. The relative attractiveness of partial backward vs. forward ownership depends on the specific nature of...

Using data on the US and EU top R&D spenders from 2004 until 2012, this paper investigates the sources of the US/EU productivity gap. We find robust evidence that US firms have a higher capacity to translate R&D into productivity gains (especially in the high-tech industries), and this...