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Make Versus Buy in Trucking: Asset Ownership, Job Design and Information

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Author Info
George P. Baker
Thomas N. Hubbard
Abstract

Explaining patterns of asset ownership in the economy is a central goal of both organizational economics and industrial organization. We develop a model of asset ownership in trucking, which we test by examining how the adoption of different classes of on-board computers (OBCs) between 1987 and 1997 influenced whether shippers use their own trucks for hauls or contract with for-hire carriers. We find that OBCs' incentive-improving features pushed hauls toward private carriage, but their resource-allocation-improving features pushed them toward for-hire carriage. We conclude that ownership patterns in trucking reflect the importance of both incomplete contracts (Grossman and Hart (1986)) and of job design and measurement issues (Holmstrom and Milgrom (1994)).

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8727.

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Date of creation: Jan 2002
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8727

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Holmstrom, Bengt, 1999. "The Firm as a Subeconomy," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 74-102, April.
  2. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Deaton, Angus, 1985. "Panel data from time series of cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 109-126. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
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  1. Laura Abramovsky & Rachel Griffith, 2009. "ICT, corporate restructuring and productivity," IFS Working Papers W09/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  2. Garicano, Luis & Hubbard, Thomas, 2003. "Specialization, Firms and Markets: The division of Labour Between and Within Law Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 3699, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Matthew Dey & Susan Houseman & Anne Polivka, 2009. "What Do We Know about Contracting Out in the United States? Evidence from Household and Establishment Surveys," Staff Working Papers 09-157, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. repec:emp:wpaper:wp05-06 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Acemoglu, Daron & Aghion, Philippe & Griffith, Rachel & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2005. "Vertical Integration and Technology: Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 5258, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Laura Abramovsky & Rachel Griffith, 2005. "Outsourcing and offshoring of business services: how important is ICT?," IFS Working Papers W05/22, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
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