We propose a simple model to analyze the widespread idea that a necessary condition for firms to make foreign direct investments is that they have firm-specific advantages with respect to host country firms. We show that no such advantages are necessary to become multinationals. Further, firms...

Das Aufkommen neuer Technologien, die US-Dominanz in der Digitalisierung und insbesondere der Aufstieg Chinas zu einem Konkurrenten stellen die Industrieunternehmen Deutschlands und Europas vor große Herausforderungen. Die Politik, allen voran Deutschland und Frankreich, fordert nun einer...

It has been suggested that mergers, by increasing concentration, raise incentives to invest and hence are pro-competitive. To study the effects of mergers, we rewrite a game with simultaneous price and cost-reducing investment choices as one where firms only choose prices, and make use of...

As a general principle, state aid to firms and sector-specific support schemes should be used only when there are market failures; that is, when there are good reasons to believe that the market would not deliver efficient and/or equitable outcomes.

I show that an advertising ban is more likely to increase - rather than decrease - total consumption when advertising does not bring about a large expansion of market demand at given prices and when it increases product differentiation (thus allowing firms to command higher prices). In this...