We examine how the U.S. Federal Government governs R&D contracts with private-sector firms. The government chooses between two contractual forms: grants and cooperative agreements. The latter provides the government substantially greater discretion over, and monitoring of, project progress....

We examine how the U.S. Federal Government governs R&D contracts with private-sector firms. The government chooses between two contractual forms: grants and cooperative agreements. The latter provides the government substantially greater discretion over, and monitoring of, project progress....

In a wide range of circumstances, relational contracts can enable strategies that might not otherwise be possible. While most studies focus on the maintenance and performance of existing relational contracts, this paper explores the origins of interfirm relational contracts, focusing on how...

Institutional economists have frequently cited trucks as prototypical user-owned assets, due to the perceived generic nature of such vehicles and the difficulty of monitoring their treatment by drivers. These scholars have consequently predicted a high prevalence of owner-operator drivers who...

We examine the managerial delegation decisions of foreign entrepreneurs, and assess how these decisions are shaped by characteristics of the local product and labor market environment. We argue that actual or perceived home bias in court proceedings leads foreign entrepreneurs to place little...

We exploit a historical setting that offers an unusually clean test of the relationship between asset ownership and management incentives: captain ownership of vessels engaged in transatlantic shipping during the 18th century. Although contingent compensation aligned incentives between captains...

We examine how the U.S. Federal Government governs R&D contracts with private-sector firms. The government chooses between two contractual forms: grants and cooperative agreements. The latter provides the government substantially greater discretion over, and monitoring of, project progress....