When R&D takes place before the associated output is produced, imperfectly competitive firms may use R&D for strategic purposes rather than to simply minimize costs. Using a symmetric two-stage Nash duopoly model we show that such strategic use of R&D increases total R&D undertaken, increases...

The sustainability debate concerns whether the world will experience stable or improving living standards for the foreseeable future, or whether the current trajectory will overtax the natural environment, leading to a `crash' in living standards. This paper selectively reviews relevant...

This paper reviews the major facts of comparative per capita economic growth over the 1960-88 period, drawing attention to the unprecedented rates of growth achieved by the fastest-growing economies and the consequent unprecedented variation in economic growth across countries. This paper also...

This paper examines the relationship between financial decisions and output decisions in oligopolistic markets. Assuming a duopoly market structure in which financial decisions and output decisions follow in sequence, the authors analyze how bankrupt cy costs, which are incurred when the firm is...

Countries often perceive themselves as being in competition with each other for profitable international markets. In such a world export subsidies can appear as attractive policy tools, from a national point of view, because they improve the relative position of a domestic firm in noncooperative...

We consider trade between a consumer' country with an open access renewable resource and a conservationist' country that regulates resource harvesting to maximize domestic steady-state utility. In what we call the mild overuse' case, the consumer country exports the resource good and suffers...

This paper examines the effect of public opinion polls on the Toronto Stock Exchange during the campaign period of the 1988 Canadian general election. Two hypotheses are investigated: first, did polls influence the Toronto Stock Exchange and, secondly, if so, did the nature of the influence...

This article calculates conduct parameters (or "conjectural variations") for a set of duopoly airline routes. We estimate the mean conduct parameter for each airline and draw inferences about whether Bertrand, Cournot, or cartel models are supported by the data. Some sensitivity analysis with...

Under what circumstances would Adam Smith's statement "the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market" be valid. This paper shows the validity of Smith's law depends not on increasing returns to scale, but on the effect of scale on economies of scope (i.e. cost complementarities...

Asymmetries in labour relations can have important effects on imperfectively competitive rivalries between firms. Such asymmetries are particularly striking in cross-country comparisons and are therefore of greatest interest in international markets. Using a simple duopoly model, we focus on two...