This paper studies the optimal growth when research and development are explicitly distinguished. To this end, we perform the quantitative welfare analysis of an original model based on (i) a matching process between research and development and (ii) a competitive search process that determines...

We consider a model with two energy sources, a non-renewable one, cheap but polluting, and a renewable one, expensive but clean, let’s say coal and solar. The aim of environmental policy is to maintain atmospheric carbon concentration under a given ceiling, chosen to prevent an excessive rise...

We consider a Stackelberg like duopoly in which the strategy space of the firms are price-quantity pairs, meaning that, at this price, a firm is willing to sell at most the supplied quantity. It is shown that, at the equilibrium, the leader will quote a price lower than the price quoted by the...

Sand and gravel mining is one of the main extractive industries in France. Extraction implies generally a loss of some agricultural potential, i.e. the destruction of some agricultural asset. Such a problem has recently arisen in the Bordeaux area, well known for its wine. In this paper, we show...

Fossil fuel use causes the atmospheric accumulation of carbon. The society, endowed with an alternative clean renewable energy, aims at keeping this pollution stock below a prescribed target. The use of an abundant and costly backstop shall follow the exhaustion of the polluting resource; in case...

Now widespread in many french wine market places, the so-called "en primeur" sales policy, that is selling part of the production before wine is bottled, appears to be a form of intertemporal price discrimination. Surprisingly enough, wine is actually sold at a lower price "en primeur" than...

It is generally expected that profit maximisation leads a firm to choose a more flexible plant the more uncertain its demand function is and/or the more variable is the sequence of quantities to produce. In this paper we make explicit the precise conditions under which this intuitive argument is...

This paper is an attempt to give a precise content to the notion of potential competition in a natural monopoly market. Competition is described as a two stage game in which a set of firms announce first a price, then a level of output. Contingent demands for each firm are obtained from a...

A partial equilibrium analysis shows that a pool of natural resources with constant unit costs of extraction has to be exploited in strict increasing cost order. Kemp and Long [1980] have shown that it is not necessarily the case in a general equilibrium framework. In a consumption-leisure...

We study the links between observation and flexible technological choices in a duopolistic industry. We show that, in large markets, the strategic value of flexibility is positive and the observation of technological choices promotes the adoption of more flexible technologies whereas in small...