Industrial policy is no longer what it used to be. In the industrialized world and in advanced developing countries alike, the focus has shifted from a top-down, statist approach that sought to create industries to a decentralized, networked approach whose aim is to shape competitive advantages and to create "systemic competitiveness." This reflects the fact that globalization and localization ...

Government firms and authorities often sell services in the free market via affiliated consulting firms (CFs). In this study, I analyse whether these agents have an unfair competitive edge compared to private CFs. The theoretical analysis shows that private and state-owned CFs operate under different conditions. A private CF must choose between having permanent employees and pay full-time wages...

In this paper we present a model of oligopoly and financial constraints. We study allocations which are bankruptcy-free (BF) in the sense that no firm can drive another firm to bankruptcy without becoming bankrupt. We show how such allocations can be sustained as an equilibrium of a dynamic game. When there are two firms, all equilibria yield BF allocations. When there are more than two firms, ...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

Religious economies theory, which views religious organizations as akin to single-unit firms competing for adherents in local markets, has three shortcomings that we solve by reconceptualizing religious organizations and developing a new theory of religious mobilization. First, we treat religious organizations as multi-unit entities operating in interdependent markets in a national field. Secon...

Article history: Received 25 April 2012 Received in revised form 29 August 2013 Accepted 5 September 2013 Available online 13 September 2013 This paper examines the relation between business group affiliation and the cost of debt capital. The co-insurance effect associated with business groups can reduce the cost of debt, while expropriation by controlling shareholders can raise the cost of deb...