OUTSOURCING WHEN INVESTMENTS ARE SPECIFIC AND INTERRELATED
利用1988和1996年加拿大大型制造业企业数据，检验产权模型对外包模式的预测，发现投资专用性高且相互关联性低时，产权理论预测得到有力支持。
Using the universe of large Canadian manufacturing firms in 1988 and 1996, we investigate to what extent outsourcing patterns concord with the predictions of a simple property rights model. The unique availability of disaggregate information on outputs as well as inputs permits the construction of a detailed measure of vertical integration. We rely on five measures of technological intensity to proxy for investments that are likely to be specific to a buyer-seller relationship. A theoretical model that allows for varying degrees of investment specificity and interrelatedness-externalities between buyer and supplier investments-guides the analysis. Property rights predictions on the link between investment intensities and optimal ownership are strongly supported, but only for transactions with low interrelatedness. High specificity and low risk of appropriation strengthen the predictions in the model and in the data. © 2013 by the European Economic Association.