IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v12y2011i1p91-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contracting and Efficiency in the Surgical Goods Cluster of Sialkot, Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Theresa Thompson Chaudhry

    (Theresa Thompson Chaudhry is Associate Professor of Economics, Lahore School of Economics, Intersection Main Blvd Phase VI DHA and Burki Road, Burki (Lahore) 53200, Pakistan. Email: theresa@lahoreschool.edu.pk)

Abstract

This article provides empirical evidence of the inefficiency of contracting institutions (measured by high switching costs) among surgical instrument producers in Sialkot, Pakistan, even though it is an industrial cluster where manufacturers have access to a multiplicity of suppliers. Following the methodology of Johnson, McMillan and Woodruff (2002), we found that nearly 50 per cent of firms in the sample would reject an untried supplier offering a lower price. The decision to reject a prospective new supplier offering a 10 per cent discount was positively related to the complexity of the input and measures of relational contracting, and negatively related to a belief in informal contract enforcement mechanisms. Firms were more likely to switch to the prospective discount supplier when they were introduced through a business network. Belief in formal contract enforcement was not significant in any of the regressions.

Suggested Citation

  • Theresa Thompson Chaudhry, 2011. "Contracting and Efficiency in the Surgical Goods Cluster of Sialkot, Pakistan," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 12(1), pages 91-115, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:12:y:2011:i:1:p:91-115
    DOI: 10.1177/139156141001200105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/139156141001200105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/139156141001200105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Klemperer, 1995. "Competition when Consumers have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(4), pages 515-539.
    2. Tore Nilssen, 1992. "Two Kinds of Consumer Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(4), pages 579-589, Winter.
    3. Abhijit Banerjee & Kaivan Munshi, 2000. "Networks, Migration and Investment: Insiders and Outsiders in Tirupur's Production Cluster," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 313, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    4. Farrell, Joseph & Klemperer, Paul, 2007. "Coordination and Lock-In: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1967-2072, Elsevier.
    5. Greif, Avner, 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 912-950, October.
    6. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 375-394.
    7. Simon Johnson & John McMillan, 2002. "Courts and Relational Contracts," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 221-277, April.
    8. Nadvi, Khalid, 1999. "Collective Efficiency and Collective Failure: The Response of the Sialkot Surgical Instrument Cluster to Global Quality Pressures," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 1605-1626, September.
    9. Kranton, Rachel E, 1996. "Reciprocal Exchange: A Self-Sustaining System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 830-851, September.
    10. Khalid Nadvi, 1999. "The cutting Edge: Collective efficiency and international competitiveness in Pakistan," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 81-107.
    11. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "The Competitiveness of Markets with Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(1), pages 138-150, Spring.
    12. Klemperer, Paul D, 1987. "Entry Deterrence in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388a), pages 99-117, Supplemen.
    13. Dilip Mookherjee, 1999. "Contractual Constraints on Firm Performance in Developing Countries," Boston University - Institute for Economic Development 98, Boston University, Institute for Economic Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry, 2011. "Prospects for Cooperative Marketing among Surgical Instrument Producers in Pakistan," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, Jan-Jun.
    2. Haroon, Maryiam & Chaudhry, Azam, 2014. "Where do new firms locate? The effects of agglomeration on the formation and scale of operations of new firms in Punjab," Economics Discussion Papers 2014-21, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark J. Tremblay, 2019. "Platform Competition and Endogenous Switching Costs," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 537-559, December.
    2. Donna, Javier D., 2018. "Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand," MPRA Paper 90059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ciotti, Fabrizio & Hornuf, Lars & Stenzhorn, Eliza, 2021. "Lock-In Effects in Online Labor Markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2021014, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Sobolewski, Maciej, 2016. "How much do switching costs and local network effects contribute to consumer lock-in in mobile telephony?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 855-869.
    5. Miguel Villas-Boas, J., 2015. "A short survey on switching costs and dynamic competition," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 219-222.
    6. Javier D. Donna, 2021. "Measuring long‐run gasoline price elasticities in urban travel demand," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 945-994, December.
    7. Wohlfarth, Michael, 2017. "Data Portability on the Internet: An Economic Analysis," 28th European Regional ITS Conference, Passau 2017 169506, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    8. Miah, Mohammad Dulal & Kabir, Md. Nurul & Safiullah, Md, 2020. "Switching costs in Islamic banking: The impact on market power and financial stability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    9. Fourberg, Niklas, 2023. "Let's lock them in: Collusion under consumer switching costs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Wing Man Wynne Lam, 2017. "Switching Costs in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 136-182, March.
    11. Rizkiah, Siti K. & Disli, Mustafa & Salim, Kinan & Razak, Lutfi A., 2021. "Switching costs and bank competition: Evidence from dual banking economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Ruiz-Aliseda, Francisco, 2016. "When do switching costs make markets more or less competitive?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 121-151.
    13. Chod, Jiri & Lyandres, Evgeny, 2023. "Product market competition with crypto tokens and smart contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(1), pages 73-91.
    14. Michael Wohlfarth, 2019. "Data Portability on the Internet," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 61(5), pages 551-574, October.
    15. Krista J. Li & Sanjay Jain, 2016. "Behavior-Based Pricing: An Analysis of the Impact of Peer-Induced Fairness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(9), pages 2705-2721, September.
    16. Stefan Hellmer, 2010. "Switching Costs, Switching Benefits and Lock-In Effects — The Reregulated Swedish Heat Market," Energy & Environment, , vol. 21(6), pages 563-575, October.
    17. Bouckaert, Jan & Degryse, Hans & Provoost, Thomas, 2010. "Enhancing market power by reducing switching costs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 131-133, November.
    18. Ruqu Wang & Quan Wen, 1998. "Strategic Invasion in Markets with Switching Costs," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 521-549, December.
    19. Nogata, Daisuke, 2022. "Determinants of household switching between natural gas suppliers: Evidence from Japan," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    20. Toker Doganoglu, 2010. "Switching costs, experience goods and dynamic price competition," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 167-205, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    JEL: K0; JEL: L14; JEL: O13; JEL: O17; Relational contracting; switching costs; law and economics; agglomeration; Pakistan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:12:y:2011:i:1:p:91-115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.