This paper investigates how ownership changes affect the plant performance, focusing on the cotton spinning industry in early twentieth century Japan, where many plants experienced ownership changes. Through analyses of detailed plant-level data, it is revealed that, after ownership changes, plants tended to focus on low grade and low price products and, at the same time, total factor productiv...

We show that joint ownership (partnership or joint venture) can implement Þrst best in a twice repeated game when each agent believes that the other party is honest with a very small probability. In the Þnal period the ownership structure is renegotiated because joint ownership is ex post inefficient. If an agent has cheated her outside option is very low since by cheating she has lost her repu...

the present study surveys the effect of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic conditions on bank performance to examine the structure-conduct-performance (scp) hypothesis in iranian banking industry. to achieve this goal, we drew upon the panel data technique to analyze the data of eleven public and private iranian banks during 2001-2006. firstly, productivity was calculated by usi...

We use text-based analysis of 10-K product descriptions to examine whether firms exploit product market synergies through asset complementarities in mergers and acquisitions. Transactions are more likely between firms that use similar product market language. Transaction stock returns, ex post cash flows, and growth in product descriptions all increase for transactions with similar product mark...

We consider the impact of horizontal mergers in the presence of free entry and exit. In contrast to much of the previous literature on horizontal mergers, our model yields predictions that seem intuitively reasonable: with only moderate cost synergies mergers of a small number of industry participants are beneficial (even under quantity competition), there is no “free rider problem” in that ins...

This paper presents evidence on the perverse trade-off that first price auctions induce between low prices at the awarding stage and poor ex post performance when bids are not binding commitments. By exploiting the different timing with which first price auctions were introduced in Italy to procure public works, this study finds that at least half of the cost savings from lower winning prices a...

This chapter surveys the new institutional economics, a rapidly growing literature combining economics, law, organization theory, political science, sociology and anthropology to understand social, political and commercial institutions. This literature tries to explain what institutions are, how they arise, what purposes they serve, how they change and how they may be reformed. Following conven...

We study the formation of cartels within two di¤erent contexts. First, we consider internal-external stability based models which, due to …rms’ free-riding incentives, lead to the inexistence of stable cartels. Second, we introduce the dynamic aspect of coalition formation. That is, when considering a cartel we consider also any cartel that can be reached through a succession of moves. Despite ...

I examine the effects of vertical integration between programming and distribution in the cable television industry. I assess the effects of ownership structure on program offerings, prices, and subscriptions, and I compare consumer welfnre across integrated and unintegrated markets. The results of this analysis suggest two general conclusions. First, integrated operators tend to exclude rival ...

We analyze relative performance of stochastic and deterministic mechanisms in an environment that has been extensively studied in the literature on communication (e.g., Crawford and Sobel, 1982) and optimal delegation (e.g., Holmström, 1984): a principal-agent model with hidden information, no monetary transfers, and single-peaked preferences. We demonstrate that under the common assumption of ...