We examine the R&D and export decisions of two ex ante symmetric firms in symmetric countries, with both unit trade costs and fixed entry costs to the export market. When both trade costs are low, there will be a symmetric, cross-hauling duopoly, but if fixed costs are fairly high, unit trade...

It is generally believed that patent pools by complementary input suppliers make the consumers, final goods producers and the society better off by reducing the complements problem. We show that this may not be the case under endogenous technology choice. Although a patent pool reduces input...

The substantial within-industry variation in firm productivity typically observed in the data suggests that there is ample scope for catch-up by laggard firms. We analyse the normative effects of such catch-up. In the short run, where firms’ process technologies are fixed, catch-up can reduce...

It is generally believed that a weak patent protection makes the consumers and the society better off compared to a strong patent protection by increasing the intensity of competition if the weak patent protection does not affect innovation. We show that this conclusion may not hold if the...

We study the decision of two firms within an oligopoly concerning whether to enter into a horizontal agreement to exploit complementarities between their R&D activities and, if so, whether to merge or form a research joint venture (RJV). In contrast to horizontal merger, there is a probability...

Foreign-owned firms exhibit widely-documented productivity advantages over domestic firms. Building on this stylized fact, we model the relationships between FDI flows and productivity differences across firms within an international oligopoly. Industrial structure is determined endogenously,...

We analyse how union structures that differ in the degree of wage-setting centralization affect the pattern of R&D network formation. Within the context of a three-firm industry, a central union that sets a uniform wage is shown to induce a partial R&D network that includes two firms but...

This is the first paper to investigate the timing of the R&D decisions in a mixed market. Considering a model in which a public firm competes against a private one, we examine the desirable (welfare-maximizing) and the equilibrium R&D role of the public firm. Our results suggest that from a...

We study when a monopolistically-competitive firm may optimally choose to limit the size of its market. This may be the case when the cost of serving the market with geographically dispersed customers is increasing in size. We also investigate the incentives faced by a firm to limit the reach of...