In service industries with congestion effects, two very different contractual structures are commonly observed, depending on whether or not firms choose to offer a guaranteed service level. We analyze the impact of these choices onmarket outcomes in oligopolistic industries. Our results highlight howdifferent contractual agreements change the intensity of price competition in service industries...

In this paper, we use a unique dataset on the distribution of output and demand across regions of the United States to estimate trade costs for 969 service and manufacturing industries. Our estimation method is a natural extension of the gravity model of trade and identifies trade costs in the absence of trade data. The estimated trade costs are higher on average for service industries, but the...

The Indian service sector forms a backbone of social and economic growth of the country and emerged as the largest and fastest developing sector. Apart from the several service industries in this sector, two major functional pillars of this sector are information and communication technology (ICT) and banking industries. These two service industries have been making continuous efforts to stand ...

IN THIS PAPER I examine the regulatory and competitive environments in which four service industries operate in Europe and Japan, suggesting how certain types of regulation and the lack of adequate competition reduce productivity. I then present estimates of the relative productivities of these industries compared with the United States and suggest that in practice, the differences in the compe...

Over the years, scholars studying technology-based innovation have uncovered patterns of success and failure. Many of the lessons learned from these observations can serve as powerful guidelines for leaders of industry as they guide their firms into new markets or help defend against emerging challengers. Most of the studies to date, however, have been based on research in manufactured product ...