Tourism ecocertification programs persist and proliferate despite low market penetration and apparent consumer indifference. This has been viewed simply as an early-adoption phase. A two-decade historical analysis of development patterns for 17 programs, however, suggests that they can be...

In a model of vertical product differentiation, duopolistic firms face quality-dependent costs and compete in quality and price in two segmented markets. Minimum quality standards, set according to the principle of Mutual Recognition, can be used to increase welfare. The results of the one-shot...

We examine anticipatory product standards intended to improve the strategic position of firms in an international patent race where firms do R&D to develop products that are close substitutes. The effects of a standard are shown to depend on the way the standard is specified, which firm develops...

This paper studies the impact of entrepreneurial decisions regarding standard creation in an oligopolistic market with cooperative Ramp;D investments. Our game-theoretic analysis shows that if standards are open and only multi-standard equilibria are allowed, it is impossible to attain a stable...

In the third essay I show that the existence of homogeneous products in a market depends on choices made by firms. If search costs are small or the proportion of consumers who search costlessly (shoppers) is large, firms have incentives to differentiate themselves vertically. On the other hand,...