Despite ubiquitous discussions of robots’ potential impact, there is almost no systematic empirical evidence on their … economic effects. In this paper we analyze for the first time the economic impact of industrial robots, using new data on a … panel of industries in 17 countries from 1993-2007. We find that industrial robots increased both labor productivity and …

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 …

perfection has been achieved the individual will aim for higher quality since the effort is more likely to be worthwhile. Because … standards may nonetheless decline. This mechanism is captured in an oligopoly model, where the failure rate and the quality are …

providers of contents incentives to invest in higher quality and, as a result, force competitors to reduce their prices …

We present a model of optimal contracting between a purchaser and a provider of health services when quality has two … dimensions. We assume that one dimension of quality is verifiable (dimension 1) and one dimension is not verifiable (dimension 2 … quality 1 increases or decreases the provider's marginal disutility and the patients' marginal benefit from quality 2 (i …

-stage model with quality choice made before price competition takes place, we show that EU anti-dumping policy that takes the form … impact of the A-D policy on quality choices is taken into account, European Welfare as well as profits accruing to the …

‘leapfrogging’ in terms of product qualities. This note presents an example where a minimum quality standard facilitates …

quality. Under reasonable assumptions on demand, investment incentives turn out to be smaller under vertical separation than …

jeopardize export quality. We look at this argument in the specific case of Cameroonian cocoa exports. The Cameroonian experience … is important because an alleged decline in cocoa quality has often been cited as illustrating the dangers of market …, in a liberalized environment, export quality is determined by the preferences of market participants and the technology …