Contractibility and Asset Ownership: On-Board Computers and Governance in U.S. Trucking,” working paper (2000)
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@MISC{Baker00contractibilityand,
author = {George P. Baker and Thomas N. Hubbard and Brian Silverman and Margaret Slade and Jerry Zimmerman},
title = {Contractibility and Asset Ownership: On-Board Computers and Governance in U.S. Trucking,” working paper},
year = {2000}
}
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Abstract
We investigate how the contractibility of actions affecting the value of an asset affects asset ownership by examining how truck ownership has changed with the diffusion of on-board computers (OBCs). We develop and test the proposition that driver ownership should decrease with OBC adoption, particularly for hauls where drivers have the greatest incentive to drive in non-optimal ways or engage in rentseeking behavior. We present evidence consistent with this proposition: driver ownership decreases with OBC adoption, especially for long hauls. In contrast, driver ownership falls less with adoption for hauls that use trailers for which demands are unidirectional than bi-directional, corresponding to differences in the rent-seeking costs of driver ownership. We also find that non-owner drivers with OBCs drive better than those without them. These results suggest that increases in contractibility may lead to less independent contracting and larger firms.
