This paper examines the price effects of generic drugs that are produced by brand-name drug firms and that are labeled, priced, and marketed to compete against independent generics. The strategy of introducing such “pseudo-generics” – also known as “authorized generics” – has raised...

Antibiotic resistance is a critical threat to human and animal health. Despite the importance of antibiotics, regulators continue to allow antibiotics to be used in low-value applications – subtherapeutic dosing in animals, and spraying tobacco plants for blue mold, for example – where the...

This paper examines firm strategy when competitors are at different points along the learning curve. It shows that firms high on the learning curve will have strong incentives to exclude new competitors, while firms that are learning more slowly will have weaker incentives to hinder new...

What is the effect of national antitrust policies in a world with international trade? Traditionally, economic analysis of mergers has assumed a closed economy, which—as we show in this paper—may lead to errant policy in an open economy. We use a very simple model to highlight some key...

This paper examines puzzling behavior in industries in which one firm is able to obtain a price premium and/or a dominant market share for a product which is identical to that of its rivals. It is shown that when there is learning by doing, economies of scale, network externalities, or...

We introduce the Irish loan funds, a set of independent but regulated microcredit societies, which in the mid-nineteenth century were lending to 20% of Irish households. Their institutional evolution is traced from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. This system was remarkably successful...

This paper investigates whether the contractual exclusion of third-party extended warranties should be legally permissible, using a model incorporating consumer heterogeneity. The welfare effects of competition in the market for extended warranties are shown to depend on the degree of...