Empirical work has failed to keep pace with recent advances in transaction cost theory and the theory of contract. The first econometric analysis of its kind is reported by using a new data set of small subcuntractors making specific inputs for customers in the engineering industry. The use of formal contracts is found to be strongly associated with specific investment and other variables measuring technological complexity and vulnerability to potential opportunism by customers. Furthermore, despite typically long‐term relationships, over half of subcontractors avoid making efficient, specific investments. Overall, we find strong support for the transaction cost theory of contracts.
Unlike previous cross-section studies which test predictions from the theory of industrial structure, we do not make an ex ante assumption about the geographical market at which competition takes place. We develop an econometric technique that endogenously determines whether the EU or member state is the appropriate market level for each industry, while also estimating a structural model of concentration and market size. Another novelty is that we use European national as well as aggregate EU data. Strong support is found for the importance of endogenous fixed costs in the theory of market structure.
The paper highlights the main drivers for merger policy reform in the European Union, including the consequences of the recent appeal court reverses. It discusses some of the substantive and procedural issues that the reform package should address, and outlines the reforms in progress. The author concludes that much of the reform package will be beneficial, but some important opportunities have been missed in this inevitably patchwork process. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.
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