This paper shows that the issues in the recent discussion over the `home-market effects' are more complicated than previously thought. It is shown that, in general, market size matters for industrial structure even when both the homogeneous and the differentiated goods face transport costs. The...

The effects of preferential trade areas (PTAs) on the investments by multinational enterprises and their implications for the welfare of members and non-members are studied in a model with two types of firms: national firms and multinational firms. In the presence of multinational activity PTAs...

The paper investigates the productivity effects of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement on Canadian manufacturing. It finds that Canadian tariff cuts increased exit rates among moderately productive non-exporting plants. This led to the reallocation of market share towards highly productive...

The relative efficiency of tariffs versus quotas is analyzed in a Cournot oligopoly with strategic investment, introducing quota licence fees to neutralize the international distributional effect. When such licence fees remove quota rents from foreign firms, then, for the case of constrained...

This paper considers the implications of changing trade barriers for the survival of Canadian manufacturing firms. The findings suggest that Canadian tariff reductions decreased the probability of survival for Canadian firms while declines in American tariffs increased that probability....

Firms claim they do not rely heavily on patents. Yet they patent, as indicated by the large number of patents that are granted. This paper offers a possible resolution to this puzzle. It takes a simplified version of a duopoly innovation race and studies the patenting decision of an innovator...

A simple two-stage game is examined, where firms compete in prices by chosen pricing instruments. Those considered include a simple, uniform pricing technology and a promotional pricing technology like an advertised discount coupon. Consumers are separated by types, informed and uninformed....

We examine restructuring, divestiture, and deregulation of a vertically integrated public utility, (e.g., electricity), from a public finance perspective. How an optimal restructuring plan for the utility depends on the cost of public funds and on the X-efficiency gains from privatization, how...

This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with multi-product firms and union wage setting. In this model, we conduct two policy experiments. First, we show that deunionization induces a general decline in firm scale and scope, the respective reduction being more pronounced in...

This paper develops a two-country, general equilibrium model of oligopoly in which the degree of horizontal product differentiation is endogenously determined by firms' strategic investments in product innovation. Consumers seek variety and product innovation is more skill intensive than...