The quality of output is of great concern to firms, consumers and regulators and yet firms' decisions concerning quality receive far less attention from economists than quantity or pricing decisions. There is a substantial management literature on product quality which, to some extent, discusses...

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between advertising, fees and quality in the self-regulating professions. Much of the literature is derived from the perspective of advertising as an information-enhancing device, helping to reduce the information...

Between 1967 and 1979, we produced a number of studies that explored different facets of the economics of advertising. This work culminated in our 1974 book entitled Advertising and Market Power. Our leading hypothesis was that heavy advertising expenditures often but not always had...

The publication of the passive learning model of Jovanovic [Jovanic, B., "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, 1982, 60, 649-670.] initiated a resurgence of interest in firm growth and survival processes. Yet all the recent work has focused on the profit maximizing firm,...

Private sector corporations in the United States fall short of their potential to increase shareholders'1 wealth in a number of ways. One example is the failure to undertake profitable energy conservation investments. Explanations of this phenomenon include agency and moral hazard problems,...

The decision to exit is examined for a cohort of over 12,000 plants established in 1976. Using a longitudinal data base, the performance of the establishments is analysed over the subsequent 10 years. The empirical evidence suggests that start-up size, ownership status, and the industry...

We explore the impact of information technology on the level of premiums paid for individual health insurance by asking which kinds of buyers will have larger gains from the use of new technology. We compare 'asking price' data posted on an electronic insurance exchange with survey data on...

A duopoly model is developed in which firms' strategic variables include brand quality, the number of distinct market segments to enter and price. Informative advertising is used to overcome consumer ignorance about brands. In contrast to many existing models in which firms engage in price...

This article tests a set of hypotheses relating to agency and Schumpeterian views on how competition affects performance. A survey data set of Australian workplaces is used, with the change in labour productivity as the dependent variable. The results show strong support for the idea that...

In recent years,a considerable body of research has been established on the co-evolution of technology and industry structure, from the time that the technology is young to the time when it is mature· A somewhat smaller body of research has been established on how private and public...