This paper develops a duopoly model of vertical product differentiation where two domestic firms incur variable costs of quality development. These domestic firms can purchase a superior foreign technology through licensing. Outcomes between Bertrand and Cournot competition are compared. We find...

In this paper, we investigate the role of output market imperfections in constraining the microfinance program to mitigate credit market imperfections. We develop a model in which output market imperfections increase operating costs for NGOs and create barriers for producers to market their...

There is scope and incentive for "stores" to endogenously arise in an exchange economy when agents possess different levels of bargaining power and coalition is costly. In the absence of stores, agents face a trading lottery where the expected outcome for an individual agent depends upon his...

We analyze a firm's job-assignment and worker-monitoring decisions when workers face occasional crises. Firms prefer to assign good workers to a difficult task and to not employ bad workers. Firms observe failures but only observe successfully resolved crises if they monitor the worker. If...

"Micro-credit" has come to refer to a popular extension strategy -usually in the agricultural sector -whereby a government or NGO extends credit at favorable rates to poorer borrowers, with repayment being supported by some kind of mortgage on the borrower's social capital. In the commonest...