Microeconomic Policies in the New Economy

Competition policy, Technology policy, Network industries

Agency Cost of Debt and Lending Market Competition: Is there a Relationship?

We address the question of how lending market competition, measured by the bargaining power of banks, affects the agency costs of debt finance. It is shown that intensified lending market competition will lead to lower lending rates and investment return distributions which are shifted towards lower, but less risky returns. Consequently, it follows that increased lending market competition will reduce the agency cost of debt financing. Hence, our analysis does not lend support to the commonly held view that there would be a trade-off between more intensive lending market competition and higher agency costs of debt finance.Bank competition, agency cost of debt

Product Market Competition, Profit Sharing and Equilibrium Unemployment

We investigate the implications of product market imperfections on profit sharing, wage negotiation and equilibrium unemployment. The optimal profit share, which the firms use as a wage-moderating commitment device, is below the bargaining power of the trade union. Intensified product market competition decreases profit sharing, but increases the negotiated base wage, because the wage-increasing effect of reduced profit sharing dominates the wage-reducing effect associated with a higher wage elasticity of labor demand. Finally, we show that intensified product market competition does not necessarily reduce equilibrium unemployment, because it induces both higher wage mark-ups and lower optimal profit shares.product market competition, profit sharing, wage bargaining, equilibrium unemployment

Equilibrium unemployment under negotiated profit sharing

We study employment, employee effort, wages and profit sharing when firms face stochastic revenue shocks and when base wages and profit shares are determined through collective bargaining. The negotiated profit share depends positively on the relative bargaining power of the trade union and has effort-enhancing and wage-moderating effects. We show that higher profit sharing reduces equilibrium unemployment under circumstances with sufficiently ‘rigid’ labour market institutions, ie sufficiently high benefit- replacement ratios and relative bargaining powers of trade unions. Conversely, profit sharing seems to be destructive from the point of view of employment when the labour market ‘rigidities’ are sufficiently small.wage bargaining; profit sharing; efficiency wages; equilibrium unemployment

Equilibrium Unemployment with Outsourcing and Wage Solidarity under Labour Market Imperfections

We evaluate the effects of outsourcing and wage solidarity on wage formation and equilibrium unemployment in a heterogeneous labour market, where wages are determined by a monopoly labour union. We find that outsourcing promotes the wage dispersion between the high-skilled and low-skilled workers. When the labour union adopts a solidaristic wage policy, it will magnify, and not dampen, this tendency. Further, higher outsourcing will increase equilibrium unemployment among the high-skilled workers, whereas it will reduce it among the low-skilled workers. Overall, outsourcing will reduce economy-wide equilibrium unemployment under the reasonable condition that the proportion of high-skilled workers is sufficiently low.outsourcing, wage solidarity, labour market imperfections, equilibrium unemployment

Equilibrium Unemployment with Credit and Labour Market Imperfections

We study the role of labour and credit market imperfections for the determination of equilibrium unemployment. In the credit market loan contracts are negotiated between financiers and firms, both possessing bargaining power, while the firms and organized labour bargain over the base wage. The sequential labour and credit market negotiations are assumed to take place conditional on the firm having committed itself to use performance-related profit sharing in addition to the negotiated base wage. It is shown that in the presence of profit sharing intensified credit market competition will raise equilibrium unemployment, because it induces wage-enhancing effects causing an increase in the outside option available to union members. Equilibrium unemployment is also an increasing function of firms' bankruptcy risks. It is, however, independent of the degree credit market imperfections if the compensation system is unrelated to firms' profits or if there is a monopoly union in the labour market.Wage and loan bargaining, compensation systems, equilibrium unemployment

Price Competition, Business Hours, and Shopping Time Flexibility

We analyze differentiated retail industries where shops engage in two-stage competition with respect to opening hours and prices. We explore the effects of consumers' shopping time flexibility by comparing bi-directional consumers with forward- or backward-oriented consumers, who can either postpone or advance their shopping, but not both. We demonstrate that retailers with longer opening hours charge higher prices and that opening hour differentiation softens price competition. We calculate both symmetric and asymmetric subgame perfect equilibria in closing hours and demonstrate how the equilibrium configurations depend on the cost increases associated with extended business hours, as well as the relative densities of day and night shoppers. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Preiswettbewerb, Öffnungszeiten und Flexibilität der Einkaufszeit) Wir analysieren unterschiedliche Einzelhandelsindustrien, in denen Läden in einem zweistufigen Wettbewerb bezüglich Öffnungszeiten und Preisen stehen. Wir erforschen die Effekte von Kundenflexibilität, indem wir völlig flexible Kunden mit vor- bzw. rückwärtsorientierten Kunden vergleichen können, welche ihren Einkauf nur vorziehen oder verschieben können, aber nicht beides. Wir zeigen, dass Einzelhändler mit längeren Öffnungszeiten höhere Preise verlangen und dass die Differenzierung der Öffnungszeiten den Preiswettbewerb abschwächt. Wir berechnen sowohl symmetrische als auch unsymmetrische teilspielperfekte Gleichgewichte für die Öffnungszeiten und zeigen, wie die Ausgestaltung der Gleichgewichte von den zusätzlichen Kosten der ausgedehnten Öffnungszeiten und der relativen Dichte von Tag- und Nachteinkäufern abhängt.Business Hours, Delayed or Advanced Shopping, Differentiated Business Hours, Price Competition, Shopping Time Flexibility.

Venture Cycles: Theory and Evidence

We demonstrate how endogenous information acquisition in venture capital markets creates investment cycles when competing financiers undertake their screening decisions in an uncoordinated way, thereby highlighting the role of intertemporal screening externalities induced by competition among venture capitalists as a structural source of instability. We show that uncoordinated screening behavior of competing financiers is an independent source of fluctuations inducing venture investment cycles. We also empirically document the existence of cyclical features in a number of industries such as biotechnology, electronics, financial services, healthcare, medical services and consumer products.screening, venture capital, investment cycles

Agency Cost of Debt and Lending Market Competition: A Re-Examination

We address how lending market competition, measured by banks’ bargaining power, affects the agency costs of debt finance. We show that the threshold for obtaining loan finance is independent of the relative bargaining power of the financier. Moreover, intensified lending market competition leads to lower lending rates and to investment return distributions with lower and less risky returns. Hence increased lending market competition reduces the agency cost of debt financing. Our analysis does not support the view that there is a tradeoff between more intensive lending market competition and higher agency costs of debt finance.bank competition; agency cost of debt

Equilibrium unemployment under negotiated profit sharing

We study employment, employee effort, wages and profit sharing when firms face stochastic revenue shocks and when base wages and profit shares are determined through collective bargaining. The negotiated profit share depends positively on the relative bargaining power of the trade union and has effort-enhancing and wage-moderating effects. We show that higher profit sharing reduces equilibrium unemployment under circumstances with sufficiently ‘rigid’ labour market institutions, ie sufficiently high benefit- replacement ratios and relative bargaining powers of trade unions. Conversely, profit sharing seems to be destructive from the point of view of employment when the labour market ‘rigidities’ are sufficiently smallwage bargaining, profit sharing, efficiency wages, equilibrium unemployment