We study a tournament/contest where the strategic variable is degree of risk rather than amount of effort. The degree to which the most able contestants win (selection efficiency) is examined. We show that the selection efficiency of a contest may be improved by limiting the competition in two...

We study how firm-specific complementary assets and intellectual property rights affect the management of knowledge workers. The main results show when a firm will wish to sue workers that leave with innovative ideas, and the effects of complementary assets on wages and on worker initiative. We...

We introduce a model analyzing how asymmetric information problems in a bank-loan market may evolve over the age of a borrowing firm. The model predicts a life-cycle pattern for banks’interest rate markup. Young firms pay a low or negative markup, thereafter the markup increases until it falls...

We derive empirical implications from a stylized theoretical model of bankborrower relationships. Banks’ interest rate markups are predicted to follow a life-cycle pattern over the borrowing firms’ age. Due to endogenous bank monitoring by competing banks, borrowing firms initially face a...

We study how complementarities and intellectual property rights affect the management of knowledge workers. The main results relay when a firm will wish to sue workers that leave with innovative ideas, and the effects of complementary assets on wages and on worker initiative. We argue that firms...

Two rival firms decide on the time of R&D and whether the new products should be compatible. I show that network externalities may induce the firms to introduce new incompatible technologies early, which is socially harmful as the R&D costs increase, and de facto standardization becomes less...

We develop a model of financial contracting under imperfect enforcement. Financial contracts are designed to keep entrepreneurs from diverting project returns, but enforcement is probabilistic and penalties are limited. The model rationalizes the prevalence of straight debt and common stock, and...

It is a widely adopted practice for firms to announce new products well in advance of actual market availability, especially in the computer industry. In this article, a firm makes pre-announcements on its product, which are "cheap talk." We develop a reputation model of "vaporware" where the...

It is a widely adopted practice for firms to announce new products well in advance of actual market availability. The incentives for pre-announcements are stronger in markets with network effects because they can be used to induce the delay of consumers’ purchases and forestall the build-up of...