Knowledge-based theorists have developed two primary arguments to explain the existence of firms: one based on avoiding knowledge transfer and the other based on facilitating knowledge transfer. These arguments are not only contradictory, but also fail to predict when hierarchies supplant...

We consider an entrepreneur that is the sole producer of a cost reducing skill, but the entrepreneur that hires a team to use the skill cannot prevent collusive trade for the innovation-related knowledge between employees and competitors. We show that there are two types of diffusion-avoiding...

In this paper we study the organization of Global Value Chains on a sample of about 4,000 manufacturing parent companies operating more than 90,000 affiliates on a global scale, which chose to integrate at least once in the period 2004–2012. Assuming a technological sequence of production...

The determinants of investment behaviour are essentially preferences, endowments, production possibilities and institutions. While there is a vast literature discussing the effect of different combinations of the latter three dimensions for given preferences, very little research effort has been...

Recent financial crises and scandals have focused attention on the system of governance and disclosure in a way many may never have imagined and few welcomed. Not only do reforms appear to be necessary to protect shareholders as well as other stakeholders, but also to develop a different...

This paper aims to analyze the impact of recent industrial changes on the governance structure of power relationships. To achieve this goal, three insights are discussed. First, the definition of what a firm is in both economic theory and in corporate law is clarified. Second, the four core...

This paper outlines several important changes in our economic model brought about by the emergence of the knowledge economy. Until now, property rights have acquired a solid track record for being the most reliable and efficient societal device for coping with economic uncertainty. In the...

In Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores,Inc. the Obama Administration contends that for-profit corporations are not “persons” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) and thus cannot avail themselves of RFRA's protections. In a brief amicus curiae, 44 scholars of corporate and...

This paper views authority as the right to undertake decisions that impose externalities on other members of the organization. When only decision rights can be contractually assigned to one of the organization's stakeholders, the optimal assignment minimizes the resulting inefficiencies by...

The paper discusses the role of various constituencies in the corporate governance of a corporation from the perspective of incomplete contracts. A strict shareholder value orientation in the sense of a rule that at any time firm decisions should be made strictly in the interest of the present...