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Frank H. Stephen’s evaluation of public policy on the legal profession in UK and European jurisdictions explores how regulation and self-regulation have been liberalized over the past 30 years. The book surveys where the most recent and radical liberalization involving the ownership of law firms by non-lawyers is likely to lead, and appraises the economic literature on the costs and benefits of regulating markets for professional services. It challenges socio-legal views on professional legislation and highlights the limitations of regulatory competition, as well as the importance of dominant business models. The author reviews the empirical work underpinning these theories and policies. He also evaluates the effectiveness of regulatory competition as a response to regulatory capture.

This book aims to disentangle the complex relationship between innovation and its potential determinants, paying special attention to the roles of governance and regulatory frameworks, and the ways in which the latter interact with other drivers of innovation such as competition and the innovator’s closeness to the technology frontier.

This unique Handbook explores both the economics of the firm and the theory of the firm, two areas which are traditionally treated separately in the literature. On the one hand, the former refers to the structure, organization and boundaries of the firm, while the latter is devoted to the analysis of behaviours and strategies in particular market contexts. The novel concept underpinning this authoritative volume is that these two areas closely interact, and that a framework must be articulated in order to illustrate how linkages can be created.

Infrastructures are subject to substantial readjustments of governance structures, often labeled as liberalization, privatization or re-regulation. This affects all traditional infrastructure sectors including communications, energy, transport and water. This study highlights and illustrates some of the major challenges for readjusting the governance of network industries from an economic, institutional, political and technological perspective. The three parts of the book address the institutional design of infrastructures, the role of technology in different sectors and actor behaviour.

In this important and timely book, Bart Nooteboom develops and applies a social cognitive theory of firms and organizations with a focus on learning and innovation.