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Corporate Hierarchies and the Size of Nations: Theory and Evidence

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Author Info
Dalia Marin () (Department of Economics, Ludwigstr. 28, 80539 Munich, phone: +49 89 2180 2446, email: dalia.marin@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Thierry Verdier () (Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris, France. phone: +33 1 43 13 63 08, e-mail: verdier@pse.ens.fr)

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Abstract

Corporate organization varies within a country and across countries with country size. The paper starts by establishing some facts about corporate organization based on unique data of 660 Austrian and German corporations. The larger country (Germany) has larger firms with flatter and more decentralized corporate hierarchies compared to the smaller country (Austria). Firms in the larger country change their organization less fast than firms in the smaller country. Over time firms have been introducing less hierarchical organizations by delegating power to lower levels of the corporation. We develop a theory which explains these facts and which links these features to the trade environment that countries and firms face. We introduce firms with internal hierarchies in a Krugman (1980) cum Melitz and Ottaviano (2007) model of trade. We show that international trade and the toughness of competition in international markets induce a power struggle in firms which eventually leads to decentralized corporate hierarchies. We offer empirical evidence which is consistent with the models predictions.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich in its series Discussion Papers with number 227.

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Date of creation: Feb 2008
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Handle: RePEc:trf:wpaper:227

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Related research
Keywords: international trade with endogenous firm organizations endogenous congruence in the firm corporate organization in similar countries empirical test of the theory of the firm

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies
F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Country and Industry Studies of Trade
L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

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References listed on IDEAS
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. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-59, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
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  3. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2002. "Globalization and the 'New Enterprise'," CEPR Discussion Papers 3640, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Raghuram Rajan & Henry Servaes & Luigi Zingales, . "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," CRSP working papers 463, Center for Research in Security Prices, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
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  5. Dalia Marin, 2006. "A New International Division of Labor in Europe: Outsourcing and Offshoring to Eastern Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 612-622, 04-05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1998. "Corporate Finance, the Theory of the Firm, and Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 95-114, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Barbara J. Spencer, 2005. "International Outsourcing and Incomplete Contracts," NBER Working Papers 11418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Raghuram Rajan & Julie Wulf, 2003. "The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies," NBER Working Papers 9633, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, 2005. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," Development Working Papers 201, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, 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. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2007. "Competing in Organizations: Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade," Discussion Papers in Economics 1933, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2007. "Power in the Multinational Corporation in Industry Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 6341, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Marin, Dalia, 2005. "A New International Division of Labor in Europe: Offshoring and Outsourcing to Eastern Europe," Discussion Papers in Economics 714, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Marin, Dalia, 2006. "A New International Division of Labour in Europe: Outsourcing and Offshoring to Eastern Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 5447, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. 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!]
    Other versions:
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