We examine conditions under which group consumption is likely to involve informal and tacit reciprocity agreements rather than formal contracts and the price system. Our model shows that informal reciprocity agreements are more likely to be used when transaction costs of formal agreements are...

In high-tech industries, one important method of diffusion is through employee mobility: many of the entering firms are started by employees from incumbent firms using some of their former employers' technological know-how. This paper explores the effect of incorporating this mechanism in a...

This paper investigates the effects of employee mobility on industry evolution and technology diffusion by testing a dynamic industry equilibrium model introduced in Franco and Filson (1999). The model focuses on a particular type of employee mobility: researchers can leave existing firms and...

Previous work on exit in declining industries has neglected mergers. We examine a simple model that predicts which declining industries experience horizontal mergers. Mergers are more likely if 1) market concentration is high; 2) the inverse demand curve is steep at high levels of output and...

We introduce a computational model of the evolution of a value-maximizing research-based pharmaceutical firm and parameterize it using estimates of R&D costs, profit distributions, and candidate attrition rates. We use the model to estimate how the probability of surviving and covering the costs...

Previous work on exit in declining industries has neglected mergers. This paper examines a simple model that illustrates how mergers can affect the order of exit. The model also predicts which declining industries experience horizontal mergers. Mergers are more likely if (1) the inverse demand...

Nations differ in their tolerance for costs of fighting and in their willingness to make concessions. We use a bargaining model of war to analyze these sensitivities. Incentives created by heightened sensitivity to costs often—but not always—contradict those created by heightened...

Thomas E Borcherding passed away on February 12, 2014, of congestive heart failure. He was 74. He is survived by his wife, Rhoda, and his sons Matthew and Benjamin. He made important, lasting contributions to the discipline of economics, particularly to the fields of public choice and law and...