This article analyzes the riskiness of the R&D strategies chosen by firms engaged in a "winner-takes-all" patent race. In contradiction to Dasgupta and Stiglitz (1980) we show that, when the distribution of invention times is symmetric, the market equilibrium cannot be safer and may be riskier...

This article reverses the standard conclusion that asymmetric information plus competition results in insufficient insurance provision. Risk-tolerant individuals take few precautions and are disinclined to insure, but they are drawn into a pooling equilibrium by the low premiums created by the...

We model the commonly used marketing practices of offering discounts to either repeat buyers (trade-ins) or new buyers (introductory offers) of a quasi-durable good. We analyze these practices in terms of their potential for intertemporal and third-degree price discrimination. In our two-period...