Playing computer games online is a fast growing, billion dollar industry which has received little academic attention. The industry exhibits a number of interesting economic features. The industry structure is determined by creative destruction as in Aghion and Howitt (1992) [Aghion, P., Howitt, P. 1992. A model of growth through creative destruction, Econometrica, 60(2), 323–351], with game ma...

This paper develops a real options model to study the interaction between industry structure and takeover activity. In an asymmetric industry equilibrium, firms have an endogenous incentive to merge when restructuring decisions are motivated by operating and strategic benefits. The model predicts that (i) the likelihood of restructuring activities is greater in more concentrated industries or i...

This paper studies product innovation and firm survival in the U.S. ATM/debit card industry. The industry started with a few shared ATM networks in the early 1970s. The number of networks grew quickly up until the mid 1980s, but then declined sharply. We construct a theoretical model based on Jovanovic and MacDonald (1994). In contrast to their model focusing on cost-saving technological innova...

The paper addresses the link between productivity and labour mobility. The hypothesis tested is that technology is transmitted across industries through the movement of skilled workers embodying human capital. The embodied knowledge is then diffused within the new environment creating spillovers and leading to productivity improvements. The empirical analysis is based on household survey and in...

Ownership structure and industry characteristics as internal and external factors respectively significantly impact the export performance of Chinese manufacturing firms. Three different yet related models, namely, logit, tobit and ordered probit models, that correspond to three different indicators of export performance are considered. It was found that the export performance of Chinese manufa...

there are different studies in urban literature on the determinants of urban growth, from the theoretical and empirical points of view. the most completed theoretical model is henderson model (1988, 1997, and 1999), which is tested by some empirical studies. as henderson model shows, the set of national product, specialization and technological progress are the determinants of urban growth. usi...

what are the main success factors of microfinance institutions in providing financial services to poor people in a sustainable manner? in this article we try to answer this question. in one hand, we analyze the core compatibility between microeconomics of asymmetric information, transaction cost and risk, and new different operational mechanisms applied by microfinance institutions. on the othe...

This paper presents the first use of close range terrestrial hyperspectral imaging to explore by-products from the iron and steel industry at a dump site cross section, using established mapping approaches in geological remote sensing. Laboratory reflectance measurements, X-Ray diffraction and chemical analysis provided a benchmark for the imaging results. In addition, terrestrial laser scannin...

The global steel price index is a leading indicator in the bulk shipping industry. A study of the global steel price index combined with the establishment of fuzzy time series models can be used to predict future trends in the trading range of the global steel price index. Analysis of applied fuzzy time series data shows the following results: (1) Price volatility of the global steel price inde...

the main purpose of this paper is to present methods and recent development in the literature of intra industry trade (iit) measuring. the case study also is carried out for iranian manufacturing industries during time period 1997-2003. for this, iran's foreign trade data was collected, processed, and then used to estimate iit indices with respect to recent literature developments in iit m...