Wholesale power markets around the world are currently undergoing a controversial restructuring of their architecture and rules of operation. Some commentators have argued that restructuring has not produced the intended improvements in market efficiency while at the same time it has complicated...

Power industry restructuring continues to evolve at multiple levels of system operations. At the bulk electricity level, several organizations charged with regional system operation are implementing versions of a Wholesale Power Market Platform (WPMP) in response to U.S. Federal Energy...

This study investigates the complicated nonlinear effects of demand-bid price sensitivity and supply-offer price caps on Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) for bulk electric power when profit-seeking generators can learn over time how to strategize their supply offers. Systematic computational...

How can firms profitably give away free products? This paper provides a novel answer and articulates tradeoffs in a space of information product design. We introduce a formal model of two-sided network externalities based in textbook economics - a mix of Katz & Shapiro network effects, price...

Competitive maneuvering in the information economy has raised a pressing question: how can firms raise profits by giving away products for free? This paper provides a possible answer and articulates a strategy space for information product design. Free strategic complements can raise a firm's...

Agencies and legislators have raised concerns that acquisitions backed by private equity (PE) threaten competition, but few, if any, have offered explanations as to why they pose a unique threat. In this article, we argue that PE-backed acquisitions may avoid antitrust enforcement because they...

In a decade of transition, fear of a leviathan state is giving way to increased focus on oligarchs who "capture the state." In the capture economy, the policy and legal environment is shaped to the captor firm`s huge advantage, at the expense of the rest of the enterprise sector. This has major...

[Note: the substantially revised published version was posted here on Aug. 4, 2004] This Article explores how copyright law's prohibition against unauthorized copying and sales may, counter to the law's purported goal, have an overall negative impact on the production and dissemination of...

This paper develops a proxy measure of the inequality of influence on the basis of survey evidence from 2002 Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) conducted among 6,500 firms in 27 transition countries. We refer to the resulting inequality as crony bias in the political...

Based on the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) of firms in transition countries, which unbundles corruption to measure different types of corrupt transactions and provide detailed information on the characteristics and performance of firms, we find that: i)...