We build a generalised growth model of horizontal product innovation with human capital accumulation in which the monopolistic mark-up set in the uncompetitive sector and the degree of returns to specialization are disentangled. We find that product market power has a positive growth effect when...

Rise and decline of the notion of "own rate of interest" in Sraffa. The notion of commodity rate of interest, introduced by Sraffa in a short review-article published in1932, is taken up by Keynes a few years later under the label of own rate of interest. The latter expression soon spreads in...

We extend the theory of advertising as a quality signal, using a model where an entrant can choose to advertise by comparing its product to that of an established incumbent. Comparative advertising, comparing quality of one’s own product to that of a rival’s, empowers the latter to file for...

The research question addressed by this paper is a simple one: are European consumers happy with the services provided by the utilities after two decades of reforms? We focus on electricity, gas, water, telephone in the EU 15 Member States. The variables we analyse are consumers’ satisfaction...

Directional derivatives are the ideal tool to model simultaneous shifts of the instruments of economic policy. Provided the equilibrium solution of an oligolistic model are differentiable with respect to the parameter, such a problem can be easily solved considering shift in single instruments,...

The work presented explore the impact of cultural resources on productivity of the firm, in particular a network firm. Culture resources is considered a primary attractor of competences and generator of new knowledges. Our main aim is to compare formal organization with informal one oriented to...