A proportional decrease in switching costs increases competition and social welfare. However, a lump-sum decrease in switching costs softens competition and does not invariably increase social welfare.

Intermittent power sources enable firms to reduce costs by horizontally subcontracting generation. Dispatchable units serve as a strategic device, even when never used, since their availability credibly limits the price paid for subcontracting. Security of supply measures motivated by too low...

type="main" <p>The merger incentives between profitable firms differ fundamentally from the incentives of a profitable firm to merge with a failing firm. We investigate these incentives under different modes of price competition and Cournot behavior. Our main finding is that firms strictly prefer...</p>

In many countries, lenders voluntarily provide information about their borrowers to private credit registries. A recent World Bank survey reveals that the display of a lender's own borrower information is often not reciprocated. That is, access to these registries does not require the prior...

We offer a social-welfare comparison of the two most prominent default options - opt in and opt out - using a two-period model of localized competition. We demonstrate that when consumers stick to the default option, the prevailing default policy shapes firms´ ability to collect and use...

This paper characterizes price competition between an expert and a non-expert. In contrast with the expert, the non-expert’s repair technology is not always successful. Consumers visit the expert after experiencing an unsuccessful match at the non-expert. This re-entry affects the behaviour of...

The Riegle-Neal Act in the US and the Economic and Monetary Union in Europe are recent initiatives to stimulate financial integration. These initiatives allow new entrants to ‘poach’ the incumbents' clients by offering them attractive loan offers. We show that these deregulations may be...