This paper concerns the recent development of large international firms in the logistics and transport industry. Our work is based on an historic comparison of the American and French market for logistics and transport activities along the twentieth century. We retrace three important period,...

One consequence of the liberalization of certain services in the European Union was that a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity rapidly transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. However, the precise relationship...

This paper analyzes the impact of vertical integration on product quality. Contrary to previous findings, it is shown that integration decreases quality in many natural situations. In general, the direction of the quality change is governed by three effects that are isolated in the model. This...

This paper contains an analysis of stylised natural gas and electricity supply sectors. Power plants operate either on natural gas or on a competing fuel – e.g. oil. The competing fuel is assumed to be traded at world market price whereas natural gas is sold by a national monopoly. The paper...

The paper explores incentives for strategic vertical separation of firms in a framework of a simple duopoly model. Each firm chooses either to be a retailer of its own good (vertical integration) or to sell its good through an independent exclusive retailer (vertical separation). In the latter...

Lignite mine and power plant can operate as two separate entities, two entities in one holding or joint venture and as the one vertically integrated energy producer. Each of these solutions has the influence on operation of this tandem including realization of its individual and joint...

Patent thickets, layers of licenses a firm needs to be able to offer products that embody technologies owned by multiple firms, and licensing policies have drawn increasing scrutiny from policy makers. Patent thickets involve complementary products, which gives rise to double marginalization --...

Assuming a fixed-proportion downstream production technology, partial forward integration by an upstream monopolist may be observed whether the monopolist is advantaged or disadvantaged cost-wise relative to fringe firms in the downstream market. Integration need not induce cost predation and...