Many economists studying America's wage divergence in the 1980's have concluded that its primary cause was a within-industry shift in relative labor demand toward the more-skilled. Following the modeling framework and empirical methods developed in Slaughter (1993), in this paper I try to...

Explaining patterns of asset ownership in the economy is a central goal of both organizational economics and industrial organization. We develop a model of asset ownership in trucking, which we test by examining how the adoption of different classes of on-board computers (OBCs) between 1987 and...

There is considerable debate over whether international trade has contributed to the declining economic fortunes of less skilled workers. One issue that has become lost in the current discussion is how firms respond to import competition and how these responses, in turn, are transmitted to the...

This paper studies how the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regime in destination countries influences the way multinationals structure the international organization of their production. In particular, we explore how multinationals divide tasks of different complexities across countries with...

When should a government provide a service inhouse and when should it contract out provision? We develop a model in which the provider can invest in improving the quality of service or reducing cost. If contracts are incomplete, the private provider has a stronger incentive to engage in both...

We present a real options model of a firm's make-or-buy decision under demand uncertainty. "Making" is subject to decreasing returns to scale, fixed costs and capital investment. "Buying" happens at a fixed price and requires no investment. Three distinct procurement regimes endogenously arise:...

Purpose: Make-or-buy decisions represent a critical dilemma faced by many firms. The appropriate decision between designing and manufacturing parts or services in-house, buying them from external providers or combining both is a fundamental firm process. This paper seeks to address this question...

The problem of textile industry started with the economic recession of the 1980s and was aggravated by globalization coupled with poor infrastructure and Nigerians perception of made in Nigeria goods. This helped the foreign multi-national textile manufacturing giants to dominate Nigeria textile...

About 40% of employment in manufacturing is in services functions. This paper develops a measure of narrow outsourcing, matching services functions performed by workers inside manufacturing firms to the same services functions provided by outside suppliers. Narrow outsourcing is entered into...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and goods-distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; that is, which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

Onsite-Werkverträge in der Warenverräumung gehen im Einzelhandel zuweilen mit gravierenden Problemen für den Auftraggeber einher. Trotzdem nimmt das Management diese Werkverträge nicht automatisch zurück. Es bedarf eines Akteurs wie des (Gesamt-)Betriebsrats, der die Rücknahme vorantreibt....

The problem of textile industry started with the economic recession of the 1980s and was aggravated by globalization coupled with poor infrastructure and Nigerians perception of made in Nigeria goods. This helped the foreign multi-national textile manufacturing giants to dominate Nigeria textile...

Compared to large established firms, technology-based new firms (TBNF) seem well placed to produce breakthrough innovations although questions remain as to their adeptness at subsequent exploitation. Building on the innovation and strategy literatures, the study identifies two different...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

The role of innovation in improving productivity might vary according to a country's relative position in technology advancement. Frontier countries might benefit more from policies that promote firms' internal innovation (create), while follower countries would gain more from policies favoring...

This paper examines political lobbying and investigates firms' decisions regarding whether to employ internal functionalities (i.e., to “make” or insource), to contract with external professionals (i.e., to “buy” or outsource), or to do both (i.e., to “make and buy” or plural...

Many small firms lack the finance and marketing skills needed for firm growth. The standard approach in many business support programs is to attempt to train the entrepreneur to develop these skills, through classroom-based training or personalized consulting. However, rather than requiring the...

Using results collected for the first time through interviews with Italian manufacturing firms, this work shows that around a quarter of aggregate manufacturing sales are not sold by the actual producer. This circumstance, known as carry along trade (CAT), means that the comparative advantage of...

Relational contracts are key to supply chain collaboration. The literature has focused on the role of trust stemming from prior business with current suppliers. However, the role of expected future business volume on the make-or-buy decision has been relatively neglected. This paper contributes...

In this era of globalization we see an increase in specialization: the production chain issplit up in more and more parts and the production of these parts is outsourced to thoseplaces in the world where production is relatively cheapest and most efficient. Itimplies that transaction costs,...