Duopoly firms engaged in a standard two-stage game of R&D and Cournot competition are caught in a prisoner's dilemma for their R&D decisions whenever spillover effects are low. This effect works to the advantage of consumers and society. This result provides an interesting perspective on the...

We consider a principal-agent model to provide a general analysis of how risk affects incentives of firms who invest in cost-reducing R&D and compete in the product market. We specify the conditions under which higher risk reduces incentives of all firms. We also examine the conditions under...

This paper studies career concerns in teams where the support a worker receives depends on fellow team members' effort and ability. In this setting, by exerting effort and providing support, a worker can influence her own and her teammates' performances in order to bias the learning process in...

The author of this article describes the content of her course titled "Economics of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation." The course is offered by the Department of Economics of Yale University at a senior undergraduate level. The author also teaches this course at the MBA program of the Yale...

This paper studies, in a two period model, the effects of knowledge spillovers among product market competitors on R&D levels. It argues that when firms' R&D decisions are strategic complements, in industries in which spillovers increase the marginal productivity of a firm's R&D, both incoming...

This paper studies cost-reducing R&D incentives in a principal-agent model with product market competition. It argues that moral hazard does not necessarily decrease firms’ profits in this setting. In highly competitive industries, firms are driven by business-stealing incentives and exert...

We study the effect of the fragmentation of intellectual property rights on optimal patent design. The major finding is that when several complementary innovative components must be assembled to operate a new technology, the patentability requirements should be stronger than in the case of...

Dans une course à l'innovation, les possibilités de rattrapage d'une entreprise distancée sont-elles aiguisées ou au contraire exclues par la présence d'externalités de R&D ? Pudenberg, Gilbert, Stiglitz et Tirole montrent dans une course au brevet avec observation imparfaite de...