Abstract
As a result of its own strategy, gradual development, vertical integration or
other factors, a firm may experience employing a worker with some firm-specific
human capital. This situation implies a kind of interdependence between the
employer and the employee whose knowledge and abilities can be perceived as
a specific asset. Both parties become strongly interdependent: the employer has
to rely on the employee and, on the other hand, the employee cannot change his
workplace easily. The presented relations are compared to a bilateral monopoly
situation in order to examine the possibility of using analogous research tools.
This paper identifies difficulties accompanying the functioning of the firm, when
the core business is based on firm-specific human capital and contains solutions
referring to transaction costs economics and the agency theory.