Using data from the Austrian retail gasoline market we test the following two hypotheses derived from spatial economics: (i) Retail shops are more densely located in areas with a higher population density. (ii) Spatial competition equilibrium prices are decreasing in the density of seller...

For a large panel of US firms it is found that managerial ownership is (econometrically) endogenous as Himmelberg et al. (Journal of Financial Economics, 53, 353-384, 1999) found. The largest shareholder, however, affects performance exogenously. This also holds for German firms.

Merger control authorities may approve a merger based on an "efficiency defense." An important aspect in clearing mergers is that the efficiencies need to be merger-specific. Joint ventures, and in particular research joint ventures (RJVs), may achieve comparable efficiencies possibly without...

We analyze the impact of corporate governance institutions and ownership structures on company returns on investment by using a sample of more than 19,000 companies from 61 countries across the world. We show that the origin of a country's legal system proves to be the most important determinant...

We show that for a spatially differentiated economy reduced product variety is the likely outcome of mergers except in cases where exit costs in relation to (outlet specific) fixed costs are high. Our empirical analysis of the Austrian retail gasoline market confirms that increases in...

We find fast convergence in productivity for 99 three-digit European industries over the 1985-98 period. Half of any productivity gap is closed on average in about 10-15 years. We explicitly formulate the steady-state assumptions for structural convergence to hold. Convergence in industrial...