This paper tests the power of real options theory to explain investment under uncertainty, exploiting differences in the degree of irreversibility between machinery and buildings. It reports estimates of investment equations for each asset class using a large sample of UK manufacturing...

We test for the presence of externalities in UK manufacturing industry, seeking to identify the channels through which they operate. Using survey data on average variable cost available by industry, we estimate a translog cost function, storing the coefficients on time dummies for a second stage...

Economic theory suggests several plausible reasons why firms may employ hurdle rates for capital investment appraisal that differ from discount rates. Using a sample of business units from the PIMS data bank of North American companies we find that hurdle rates are frequently below and also...

This paper considers aspects of the competitive selection process in China - firm entry, survival, and exit - in an important sector of manufacturing, looking in particular for changes resulting from the latest stage of reforms. Using industry survey data from a province in North-East China, we...

In this paper we consider the relationship between the standards created by national standards bodies and long run economic growth, exploring the relationship in the context of the UK and the British Standards Institution (BSI). We suggest that standards provide a key enabling mechanism for the...

This paper considers the sources of technological change and productivity growth in the small firm sector of UK manufacturing over the period 1973- 2002, focusing on the mechanisms by which spillovers occur between the large firms which perform the bulk of R&D and smaller firms which are the...

In this paper we develop models of intra-industry trade in which the technological infrastructure associated with measurement activity plays a role in determining the ability of firms to differentiate their products, making them more marketable, and hence promoting intra-industry trade. We...

This paper considers the model of voluntary, consensus based standardization as developed through the British Standards Institution (BSI) and its contribution to learning and productivity growth. It discusses the contribution of professional engineers to the model's introduction, its extension...

This note reassesses the basic result in Mukhopadhaya (2003) that, when jurors may acquire costly signals about a defendant’s guilt, with a larger jury size the probability of reaching a correct verdict may in fact fall, contrary to the Condorcet Jury Theorem. We show that if the jurors...

This paper presents a model in which firms invest on their customer-networks to maintain current and future profits. The model is used to illustrate how the costs of maintaining networks and uncertainties about the customer-networks reduce the importance of making investments on the...