In general, the disclosure of know-how and technological knowledge could harm the disclosing firm. Firms, however, often share their know-how freely and enhances their profits. We provide a theoretical framework and a new insight for know-how disclosure. We consider a multi-product oligopolistic...

This paper has aimed to provide information useful to policy makers involved in planning for the management of postal service. Five countries were selected?the UK, France, Germany, US and Japan?and the characteristics of their postal services were described in terms of regulation,...

When upstream firms compete in quantity and freely enter the input market, competition among downstream firms reduces the input price (the marginal cost of downstream firms). The industry profits of downstream firms competing in quantity can increase with the number of downstream firms.

It is often argued, though mostly informally, that outward foreign direct investment (FDI) is a synonym for the export of employment and thus detrimental to the home economy. To see whether and under what conditions this intuition indeed holds true, we construct a model of unionized duopoly and...

This paper theoretically analyses the duopolistic behavior of two hypothetical airlines operating in a four-point hub-and-spoke route network system, and examines the impact of this behavior on economic welfare. The important character of these two airlines is that they are of different (i.e.,...

We investigate a mixed market in which a state-owned, welfare-maximizing public firm competes against profit-maximizing n domestic private firms and m foreign private firms. A circular city model with quantity-setting competition is employed. We find that the equilibrium location pattern depends...

Japanese buyer-supplier relationships, or Keiretsu systems, are recognized as being a major factor contributing to the competitive advantage of Japanese companies. Academics have been interested in these close relationships and some Western companies have introduced these systems. Against the...

In light of the experience gained from seven insolvencies out of 40 life insurance companies in Japan, this research paper proposes a new approach to the prior detection of insolvent life insurance companies since such detection is considered difficult only with the risk-based capital method...

This paper investigates whether post-entry performance differs between start-up firms, according to the source of finance. In particular, the relationship between the use of external equity and performance is focused upon. Using an original data set of start-up firms in Japan, we examine the...

This study aims to investigate two important issues: whether or not public infrastructure contributes to production in the private sector, and whether or not political economy factors such as political situations, lobbying factors, and the availability of national grants for investment affect...