Non-contractible quality dimensions are at risk of degradation when the provision of public services is privatized …. However, privatization may increase quality by fostering performance-improving innovation, particularly if combined with … opening to private provision affected mortality rates – an important and not easily contractible quality dimension – using a …

We apply a simple method to study the relative quality of Chinese versus European products exported in the clothing … change of export prices and quantities sold in narrowly defined product categories as an indicator of quality shifts. Using … indication of China moving up the quality ladder in its clothing exports relative to the EU. While European ‘core’ products in …

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 …

Performance indicators are increasingly used to regulate quality in health care and other areas of the public sector …) higher ability increases quality directly and indirectly (through a lower marginal cost of quality); b) the provider can game … impact on quality, quality effort is lower and distortions from informational rents are higher; under some conditions more …

Investigations of the effect of quality differences on heterogeneous performance in exporting have been limited by lack … of direct measures of quality. We examine exports of French wine, matching the exporting firms to producer ratings from … two wine guides. We show that high quality producers export to more markets, charge higher prices, and sell more in each …

We study the relationship between competition and quality within a spatial competition framework where firms compete in … prices and quality. We generalise existing literature on spatial price-quality competition along several dimensions …, including utility functions that are non-linear in income and cost functions that are non-separable in output and quality. Our …

We investigate the effect of competition on quality in regulated markets (e.g., health care, higher education, public … increasing, the steady state quality is higher under the open- loop solution than under the closed-loop solution. Fiercer … competition (lower transportation costs and/or less sluggish demand) leads to higher quality in both solutions, but the quality …

We investigate the effect of competition on quality in regulated markets (e.g., health care, higher education, public … utilities) taking a differential game approach, in which quality is a stock variable. Using a Hotelling framework, we derive the … the marginal provision cost is increasing, investment and quality are lower in the closed-loop solution: in fact, quality …

We evaluate the quality differentials between developing and developed countries' textiles and clothing exports …. Theoretical analyses often conclude that protection leads to quality upgrading (downgrading) of imports (domestic production …), while recent empirical work suggests that it shifts the quality of foreign and domestic goods in the same direction. Using a …

firm (possibly the low-quality one) may capture the entire market. When product qualities are different, we may also have … quality firm captures a larger market share. …