We study the decision of two firms within an oligopoly concerning whether to enter into a horizontal agreement to exploit complementarities between their R&D activities and, if so, whether to merge or form a research joint venture (RJV). In contrast to horizontal merger, there is a probability...

We study firms' preferences towards intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes in a North-South context, using a simple duopoly model where a 'North' and a 'South' firm compete in a third market. Unlike other contributions in this field, we explicitly introduce the South's capability to...

This paper addresses the following question: how does a higher education funding system influence the trade-off that universities make between research and teaching? We do so by constructing a general model that allows universities to choose actively the quality of their teaching and research...

We analyze a simple oligopoly model where firms can engage in cost-reducing R&D. We compare two R&D regimes, that is, R&D competition and R&D cooperation where firms can enter in a Research Joint Venture (RJV). We introduce coordination costs for the RJV and examine how these affect the...

We introduce R&D activity and R&D subsidies in the context of a mixed oligopoly and evaluate the effects of privatization on welfare. We show that when R&D subsidies are employed, privatization is welfare and R&D promoting provided that the number of competitors is sufficiently large.

We investigate the use of subsidies to R&D, both in a mixed and a private duopoly market. We show that the socially optimal R&D subsidy is positive and increasing in the degree of spillovers both in the private and the mixed duopoly, although it is lower for the former than for the latter. We...

We study firms' adoption of flexible versus dedicated technologies in the context of a mixed versus a private duopoly with product differentiation. The flexible technology allows a firm to become multiproduct or multimarket without bearing additional costs. We find that a configuration where...