The authors analyze incomplete long-term contracts when buyers incur relationship-specific set-up costs and sellers choose product or service quality that is not verifiable to third parties. If set-up costs are observable, the first-best outcome can be achieved even though contracts cannot...

The authors analyze horizontal mergers in Cournot oligopoly. They find general conditions under which such mergers raise price, and show that any merger not creating synergies raises price. The authors develop a procedure for analyzing the effect of a merger on rivals and consumers and, thus,...

We study the welfare economics of probabilistic patents that are licensed without a full determination of validity. We examine the social value of instead determining patent validity before licensing to downstream technology users, in terms of deadweight loss (ex post) and innovation incentives...

The authors study the rivalry between two firms to develop an innovation in a dynamic setting that allows for post-development dissemination of the innovation, such as licensing or imitation. This dissemination may cause the noninnovating firm to benefit from the discovery. When this occurs,...

The authors analyze trade in both legitimate and counterfeit products. Domestic firms ow n trademarks and establish reputations for delivering high-quality pr oducts in a steady-state equilibrium. Foreign suppliers export legiti mate low-quality merchandise and counterfeits of domestic...