 Come Together: Firm Boundaries and DelegationAndrew Newman,
Laura Alfaro,
Nicholas Bloom,
Paola Conconi,
Harald Fadinger,
Raffaella Sadun and
John van Reenen
No 12923, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Abstract: We jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them by confronting an incomplete-contracts model with data on vertical integration and delegation for thousands of firms around the world. Integration has an option value: it confers authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve problems that arise in the course of an uncertain production process. The model can explain why more vertically integrated firms tend to delegate more, as observed in our data. In line with the model’s predictions, we find that firms are more likely to integrate suppliers that produce more valuable inputs and operate in industries with more dispersed productivity, and that firms delegate more decisions to integrated suppliers that produce more valuable inputs and operate in more productive industries. Keywords: Vertical integration; Decentralization; Real options; Supply assurance (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12923 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX. |
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