Favoritism in vertical relationship is a situation in which an upstream firm sets favorable exchange conditions to some agents at the expense of others. This paper explores the reason for, and direction of, favoritism in the vertical relationship between an upstream firm and a number of...

We analyze duopolistic competition between horizontally differentiated firms selling durable goods or services subject to congestion. At each point of time, new customers buy one unit of the commodity from one of the firms, by comparing present prices and future congestion rates. We study the...

We offer a new proof of the maximum principle for optimal control problems with fixed endpoint. We allow for inequality constraints involving state variables and control variables. Our proof relies on an application of the envelope theorem. Nous donnons une preuve nouvelle du principe de maximum...

This paper presents a Nash equilibrium model of rent-seeking behavior in which risk-averse players expend resources to obtain a share of a rent, as for example in contests for import quota licences. Results are obtained relating the equilibrium level of lobbying effort by each player to the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate conditions under which voters’ comparison of relative performance between adjacent jurisdictions can help reduce rent-seeking by politicians. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was developed to examine the effectiveness...

This paper develops an oligopolistic model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and endogenous R&D to examine how trade liberalization affects firm and industry productivity, as well as social welfare. We identify four effects of trade liberalization on productivity: (i) a direct...

We propose a simple model of a partially integrated industry which explicitly takes into account persistent production cost differences across upstream firms, such as one might observe in natural resource industries. The model allows us to highlight the respective roles of strategic...

This paper proposes a welfare criterion that balances the need for development and the concern for the least advantaged generations, and explores its implications. This criterion, called the mixed Bentham-Rawls criterion, moderates the effect of discounting, yet permits some degree of...