quality of their products. Firms first choose their locations (or product characteristics) and then compete in prices. Under … full information, it is shown that, whereas the low-quality firm prefers to locate as far as possible from its competitor …, the same is not true for the high-quality firm, unless the quality difference is small enough. The paper then suggests an …

The present paper discusses the role of quality in patent systems from the perspective of patent offices' behavior and … quality level of their examination processes. Various objectives of patent offices' governors are considered. We show that the … quality of the patent system is maximal for the patent office that maximises either the social welfare or its own profit …

This paper presents a quality index for patent systems. The index is composed of nine operational design components … quality index, controlling for research efforts, patent fees and the "strength" of enforcement mechanisms. …

This paper develops a methodology to compare the quality of examination services across patent offices. Quality is … EPO provides higher-quality and more expensive services than the USPTO, while the JPO is in an intermediate position … Lerner's (2004) conjecture of a vicious cycle between quality of examinations and demand for patents; and 2) highlight the …

We explore the relationship between innovation activity, productivity, and exports using a panel of Spanish … innovation seems to explain the positive association between exports and productivity for this group of firms. For small non …