Integrated ownership is often seen as a way to foster specific investments. However, even in integrated firms, managers invest to maximize their compensation, which is chiefly driven by divisional income. Thus it is not clear that integration has any effect on investments in a world of...

If individuals own the right to take any action that they please, and are free to contract about behavior, will outcomes be efficient in all situations? That is, does the Coase theorem hold? We study this classic question through the lens of a non-cooperative model of contract negotiations,...

Using a firm-level panel dataset covering the universe of Danish exports between 1999 and 2006, we find robust evidence for profit shifting by multinational corporations (MNC) through transfer pricing. Our triple difference estimation method corrects for a downward bias in previous studies. The...

In this paper we examine three distinct types of ownership advantages, and argue that these are associated with three different kinds of limits to the growth of the firm. For some firms, the inability to regenerate its asset-based advantages is critical, while for others, the inability to...

A general framework for the study of outsourcing is introduced that incorporates dynamics and heterogeneity among both upstream and downstream producers to mimic an exit approach (Hirschman, 1970) to building vertical relations. The environment is one of search friction and incomplete contracts,...

In the model by Grossman and Helpman (2002) no industry has both vertically integrated and specialized producers in equilibrium. I generalize their model by assuming that final goods producers (irrespective of whether they are vertically integrated with the upstream stage or specialized in the...

Consider a buyer and a seller who have agreed to trade an intermediate good. It is ex-post efficient to adapt the good to the prevailing state of the world. The seller has private information about the costs of adapting the good. In the case of non-integration, the buyer has no possibility to...

Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) typically require their members to declare whether they hold standard-essential patents (SEPs) or disclose which SEPs they own, and to commit to licensing SEPs on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) terms. The apparent vagueness of FRAND...

This paper analyses the ownership structure of foreign affiliates of Spanish firms. In contrast to previous studies on the participation degree, the paper highlights the importance of the previous decision to invest abroad. To do so, an econometric model with a limited dependent variable helps...