According to economic research, the general practitioner is considered as an agent that offered information and intellectual services in health to principals. Imperfect convergence between their objectives, like the presence of uncertainties and information asymmetries, lead the physician “to...

This paper analyses the impact of competition among downstream firms on an upstream firm's payoff and on its incentive to vertically integrate when firms on both segments negotiate optimal contracts. We argue that tougher competition decreases the downstream industry profit, but improves the...