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Unit 3- The organisation of the
firm and industry
SPOT MARKET: Informal relationship between buyer and seller where none is
obligated to make an exchange
CONTRACT: Formal relationship between buyer and seller that obligates an
exchange in a legal document
PROCEDURE INPUTS INTERNALLY (VERTICAL INTEGRATION) : A firm
produces the inputs needed to the final product.
TRANSACTION COSTS: costs associated with acquiring an input a part from the
money paid to the supplier. (implicit)
a. Specialised investment
a. to allow thw two parties to exhcnge
b. Relationship specific exchange
a. when parties of a transaction have made a specialised investment
VERTICAL INTEGRATION
Use Advantages Disadvantages
skips middleman
when inputs require significant internal regulatory
reduced oportunism
transaction costs, complex mechanism cost of setting
mitigates transaction
contracting, specialised investment. up no longer specialised
costs
COMPENSATION AND THE PRINCIPAL-AGENT
PROBLEM
The principal problem for the lack of effort from labout inputs is the SEPARATION
OF OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL.
owners must incent managers
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 1
employees and managers
Managers face an economic trade off of leisure against labour.
INCENTIVES
1. Fixed salary
a. wages
2. Incentive contracts
a. performance related pay
b. absolute and relative
In order to align onwers and managers intrests: stock option.
In order to align manager workder interests: profit sharing, revenue sharing, price
rates, tima clocks.
EXTERNAL INCENTIVES
Reputation or take over threat can incentive managers .
MARKET STRUCTURE
factors:
number of firms
concentration (size)
technological and costs consitions
demand
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 2
barriers of entry
conduct
MEASURING INDUSTRY CONCENTRATION
C4 doesn´t take into account size and distribution, HHI gives more weigt to larger
businesses.
We muiltiply by 10000 beacuase the numbers are too small.
Legislation HHI values
Low concentration <1000
Moderate concentration between 1000 and 1800
Concentrated >1800
If the HHI in an indutry is larger than 1800 then the authorities will not allow for a
merger.
TECHNOLOGY AND COSTS
It depends of labour or capital intensive industries.
If the available technology is different, somw firms will have a cost advantage.
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 3
DEMAND AND MARKET CONDITIONS
Low demand may imply few firms
High demand may imply many firms
Elasticity varies:
ROTHSCHILD INDEX
POTENTIAL FOR ENTRY
factors:
capital requirements
patents
economies of scale …
CONDUCT
price markup over costs
integration or mergers
adventising expenditures
RD expenditures
1. PRICING BEHAVIOUR:
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 4
2. INTEGRATION AND MERGER ACTIVITIES
a. merger
i. reduce transaction costs
ii. economies of scale
iii. increase market power
iv. better access to capital markets
b. vertical integration
i. adding stages of the production function
c. horizontal integration
i. merging similar products into a firm
d. conglomerate mergers
i. two or more differnt product lines into a firm
The DANSBY-WILLIG PERFORMANCE INDEX measures how much social
welfare would increase if the output of an indusrty would increase by a small
amount
STRCUTURE- CONDUCT- PERFORMANCE
Structure Conduct Performance
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 5
Structure Conduct Performance
number of firms, profit and social
individual bahaviour: price, supply,
concentration, cost welfare,
RD, innovation, vertical integration
structure… employment
Dansby-Willig
Concentration ratio Lerner index
performance index
The SCP paradigm interprets that these three aspects are interrelated.
Unit 3- The organisation of the firm and industry 6