When potential shareholders cannot observe the business conditions of the firms, the latter desiring to acquire capital by an IPO and operating under less favourable business conditions have a strong incentive to appear more successful.

In a model of sequential patent races, it is examined whether or not introducing a patent law in the home country is beneficial to the firms and the society as a whole given the foreign country already offers patent protection. Before the first patent race starts, the firms and the foreign...

When the home country introduces a patent law after the winner of the patent race is known the country's welfare may rise only if the domestic firm wins. If the home country decides before the patent race ends, the welfare may be increased when the probability that the domestic firm wins is...

We discuss the effects of AD-protection in a standard Dixit model of entry deterrence. In an AD-regime, the newcomer is constrained by a minimum-price rule in addition to existing irreversible entrance costs. For minimum prices which lie below the Stackelberg one, we find that AD- rules distort...

The paper examines the effects of the degree of competition on the firms' decision to innovate in differentiated markets. We find that a low (high) degree of product differentiation (competition) weakly supports the introduction of new products. Firms' weakly favour a process innovation if the...

For a market of horizontal product differentiation, the paper examines the effects of the level of competition on the firm’s decision between a product and process innovation. When firms have to choose between the two types of innovation, it is demonstrated that both firms undertake the...

When the home country introduces a patent law after the winner of the patent race is known, the country's welfare may rise only if the domestic firm wins. If the home country decides before the patent race ends, the welfare may be increased when the probability that the domestic firm wins is...

The paper examines the effects of the degree of competition on firms'decisions to innovate in differentiated markets. Firms favor productinnovations if they produce close substitutes (so competition is severe) andfavor process innovations if products are differentiated (so competition isless...

The paper examines the effects of the degree of competition on firms' decisions to innovate in differentiated markets. Firms favor product innovations if they produce close substitutes (so competition is severe) and favor process innovations if products are differentiated (so competition is less...

Still, globalisation and its effects on wages and employment is a major topic in the public press. Therefore, this article provides an overview of popular models studying the effects of an intensified international trade on the domestic labour markets in presence of imperfections on the latter....