Suchergebnisse

This paper tests whether the behavior of corrupt officials is consistent with standard industrial organization theory. We designed a study in which surveyors accompanied truck drivers on 304 trips along their regular routes in two Indonesian provinces, during which we directly observed over 6,000 illegal payments to traffic police, military officers, and attendants at weigh stations. Using plausibly exogenous changes in the number of police and military checkpoints, we show that market structure affects the level of illegal payments, finding evidence consistent with double-marginalization and hold-up along a chain of vertical monopolies. Furthermore, we document that the illegal nature of these payments does not prevent corrupt officials from extracting additional revenue using complex pricing schemes, including third-degree price discrimination and a menu of two-part tariffs. Our findings illustrate the importance of considering the market structure for bribes when designing anti-corruption policy.

We examine the effect of patenting on the survival prospects of 356 internet-related firms that IPO'd at the height of the stock market bubble of the late 1990s. By March 2005, nearly 2/3 of these firms had delisted from the NASDAQ exchange. Although changes in the legal environment in the US in the 1990s made it much easier to obtain patents on software and, ultimately, on business methods, less than half of the firms in this sample obtained, or attempted to obtain, patents. For those that did, we hypothesize that patents conferred competitive advantages that translate into higher probability of survival, though they may also simply be a signal of firm quality. Controlling for age, venture-capital backing, financial characteristics, and stock market conditions, patenting is positively associated with survival. Quite different processes appear to govern exit via acquisition compared to exit via delisting from the exchange due to business failure. Firms that applied for more patents were less likely to be acquired, though obtaining unusually highly cited patents may make them more attractive acquisition target. These findings do not hold for business method patents, which do not appear to confer a survival advantage.

Music and the city: Cultural diversity in a global cosmopolis: Musical diversity and the gateway to empire ; Migration, ethnic diversity & multi-culturalism ; Urban musical landscapes and places of mixing and exclusion ; American connections & local sounds ; The musical production of the city -- Music as a city sound: Rock culture and the poetics of loss ; Rock music in Liverpool ; Liverpool in rock music ; The definitive liverpool sound ; Music, lament and the soul of the city -- Music as city heritage: Decline and renewal in the Nashville of the North ; Country music in Liverpool ; Liverpool in country music ; Music and alterity at the heart of the city -- Music as city business: Trial, tribulation and place in a labour of love: The business of music in Liverpool ; Liverpool in the music business ; Commerce, creativity and marginality in the pool of talent -- Music as a city Industry : Haemorrhage, debt and the politics of music policy-making: Music Industry policy-making in Liverpool ; Liverpool in music Industry policy-making ; Making music fit a policy agenda -- Music and city tourism : Respect, betrayal and the haunting of the Beatles ; Beatles tourism in Liverpool ; Liverpool in Beatles tourism ; Rock culture, the Beatles and a city in music -- Music as a city quarter: Brands, noises and regeneration: music and regeneration in Liverpool ; Liverpool in music and culture-led regeneration ; Music making a noise -- Conclusion

Making it yourself -- Taking the first steps -- Identifying your market -- Structuring your business -- Keep the cash flowing -- Locating and setting up -- Staffing your business -- Equipping your business -- Marketing your business -- Setting up shop online -- Day-to-day dollars and good sense -- Tales from the trenches