Publisher Summary The theory of the firm has long posed a problem for economists. This
chapter discusses the analytical models of the firm that go beyond the black-box conception …

Choosing appropriate policy instruments is an important part of successful regulation. Once
objectives are agreed and suitable targets adopted, policy-makers can employ command …

Online shopping is increasingly becoming people's first choice when shopping, as it is very
convenient to choose products based on their reviews. Even for moderately popular …

The Theory of Industrial Organization is the first primary text to treat the new industrial
organization at the advanced-undergraduate and graduate level. Rigorously analytical and …

Game theory, the formalized study of strategy, began in the 1940s by asking how
emotionless geniuses should play games, but ignored until recently how average people …

This paper studies optimal incentive contracts when workers have career concerns--
concerns about the effects of current performance on future compensation. We show that the …

This paper gives a fresh account of competition in the digital economy. Economic analysis in
the field of industrial organization remains largely focused on a sophisticated version of the …

In one sense, contracts provide the foundation for a large part of economic analysis. Any
trade—as a quid pro quo—must be mediated by some form of contract, whether It be explicit …

This article identifies some of the major issues that have been examined in the literature on
incentives. The article begins by discussing the frictions that lie at the heart of incentive …

We propose a clarification of the notion of a soft budget constraint, a concept widely used in
the analysis of socialist, transitional, and market economies. Our interpretation is broad …