A MICRO-ECONOMIC APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF SUPPLY RESPONSE IN BRITISH AGRICULTURE

Most of the work undertaken on the estimation of supply response in U. K. agriculture has been based on the analysis of time-series data. However, there are a number of problems associated with an analysis of aggregate supply response for British agriculture based on time-series analysis alone. This paper reports on an alternative supply response model being developed at Newcastle in which estimates of aggregate supply levels are built up from optimal programmes for a set of representative farms.     

Natural Monopoly and Yardstick Competition

There is a renaissance of interest in yardstick competition as an aid to regulators. It can work well when the only source of inter-firm cost differences is efficiency. However, when cost differences arise from other factors, yardstick competition must rely on statistical analyses which have so far not been very successful in determining the effect on distribution cost of the cost environment, scale and service quality.     

Can entrepreneurial firms benefit from product piracy?

We examine the potential benefits of product piracy to entrepreneurial firms. Specifically, we use a resource-based perspective to show that a decrease in the inimitability of an entrepreneurial firm's intellectual property does not necessarily diminish performance when piracy increases the value of this resource, and an information economics perspective to explain why and when imitation can increase the value of an intellectual property resource. This explanation reconciles empirical studies that indicate mixed results. It also expands the resource-based view by suggesting that reducing the value of one resource can directly increase the value of another.