The present note shows that "innocuous" Minimum Quality Standards, namely below the lowest quality in a market, may have effects on equilibrium outcomes. Such a MQS reduces the incentive to invest in R&D by the quality-leading firm.

This paper extends the concept of the exercise boundary as an analytical tool in determining when an optimizing agent might undertake an irreversible action under uncertainty. to situations where the objective function of optimizing agents depends on decisions taken by other agents. By using the...

The literature so far has analyzed the effects of Minimum Quality Standards in oligopoly, using models of pure vertical differentiation, with only two firms, and perfect information. We analyze products that are differentiated horizontally and vertically, with imperfect consumers information,...