When a firm changes its unique mix of products, markets, and technologies, some of employees’ previously acquired human capital depreciates. As a result, the firm can credibly renegotiate down employees’ quasi rents, which it had promised them as a reward for their human capital investments. We show that linking employees’ pay to total firm value, a widely observed phenonemon in practice, can m...

he cities of the developing world are the engines of economic growth, but they also face and cause multiple and pressing environmental issues. Those highlighted at the 1992 “Earth Summit” included water supply, sanitation, and pollution, and shaped the “brown agenda.” A decade later, this agenda includes the interactions between cities and the regional and global environment. This note reviews ...

We consider a tournament between two workers of different abilities who choose both human capital investment and effort. The employer can influence the workers’ behavior by determining the sequence of human capital investments, i.e. the training design. The workers can either invest simultaneously or sequentially with the favorite being the first mover or sequentially with the underdog as first...

A computer simulation model for the valuation of investments in disruptive technologies is developed. Based on the conceptual framework proposed by Christensen (1997) for explaining the Innovator’s Dilemma phenomenon, an investment project is divided into two sequential phases representing the evolution of the disruptive technology from an emerging to a mainstream market. In each of these phase...

We analyze competition between vertically integrated infrastructure operators that provide access in different geographical areas. A regulator may impose a uniform access price, set local access rates, or deregulate access locally. We analyze the impact of these alternative regulatory regimes on network investments. While cost-based access leads to both suboptimal rollout and duplication, unifo...

We propose and test a conceptual model allowing for investigating the microeconomic impact of investments in Telecoms, where Telecoms are used as a proxy for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in general. While the impact of investments in Telecoms on the macroeconomic outcomes in the form of productivity growth has been previously investigated, there seems to be no published resea...

Foreign direct investments from emerging economies increased have significantly increased in the period 1990 2010, growing from USD 145 billion to USD 3,1 billion in (UNCTAD, 2011). Because of this remarkable growth, they have received huge attention, and a growing number of papers, books, and journal issues have addressed the intriguing questions in this area, especially regarding the nature a...

We analyze noncontractible investments in a model with shading. A seller can make an investment that affects a buyer’s value. The parties have outside options that depend on asset ownership. When shading is not possible and there is no contract renegotiation, an optimum can be achieved by giving the seller the right to make a take-it-or-leave-it offer. However, with shading, such a contract cre...

Risk control plays an important role at privacy protection. Article 17 (1) of the Directive 95/46/EC (DPD) requires that the controller must implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. ICT offers solutions in the shape of privacy protection for users, consumers and citizens. The application of ICT to protect privacy has become widely known under the nam...

I expand Gary Becker’s market analysis of marriage behavior to derive a set of new implications about marriage and education. In my model, people can make college and career investments to improve their income and marriage prospects before they enter the marriage market. In the overlapping-generations marriage market, men are characterized by income, and women are characterized by income and re...