In this paper we modify a standard quality ladder model by assuming that R&D is driven by outsider firms and the winners of the race sell licenses over their patents, instead of entering directly the inter- mediate good sector. As a reward they get the aggregate profit of the industry. Moreover,...

We analyse the optimal pricing choice of an incumbent firm that sells a good with network externalities and is threatened by the entry of a higher quality variant. In the framework of a vertical differentiation model, we find a necessary and sufficient condition under which quality improvement...

We study the introduction of new products in a vertically differentiated industry. Innovative firms have to engage into reducing time-to-market investments in order to shorten the time interval between innovation and sales. Still, these investments generate irreversible costs which have to be...

Human actions are often guided both by individual rationality and by social norms. In this paper we explore how duopoly market competition values the variants of a product, when these variants embody at different levels the requirements derived from some social norm. In a model where preferences...

In this paper, we develop a Bayesian analysis of a semi-parametric binary choice model. The prior specification of the functional parameter, namely the distribution function of a latent variable, is of the Dirichlet process type and the prior specification of the Euclidean parameter, namely...