考虑革新程度认知差异的新产品技术授权研究

建立博弈模型，探讨技术革新认知差异情形下，外部技术创新者向寡占竞争格局的生产企业授权生产新产品专利的最优决策问题。研究发现，创新授权者关于新产品市场的认知劣势使固定收费契约不具备完全优于特许权收费契约的绝对优势；在双重收费契约下，专利人授权对象选择因认知差异影响，由排他性授权向非排他性授权决策转变；认知差异性削弱了创新企业市场势力，从而提高特许权收费契约优势，而拍卖、股权投资等有助于创新企业克服认知劣势。据此，建议创新企业明晰创新专利长期回报，综合搭配应用多种授权契约；以非排他性授权策略配合特许权收费、双重收费和股权投资等契约模式，实现技术交易产业链激励共容下的利润最大化，促进技术创新传播应用，提高社会福利水平。     

Optimal patent licensing—Two or three-part tariff

We look into technology transfer by an insider patentee in a spatial duopoly model under three types of licensing contracts—(i) two-part tariff with fixed fee and per-unit royalty, (ii) two-part tariff with fixed fee and ad-valorem royalty and (iii) general three-part tariff with fixed fee, per-unit and ad-valorem royalties. Under two-part tariff contracts, the licenser is better off with the per-unit royalty contract but the general contract does better than the other contracts. In contrast to the existing literature, all three licensing contracts may make the consumers worse-off compared to no licensing, with the lowest consumer surplus achieved under the general licensing contract. Welfare under the general licensing contract is equal to the welfare under two-part tariff with ad-valorem royalty and it is higher than the welfare under no licensing but lower than the welfare under two-part tariff with per-unit royalty. Hence, the general three-part licensing contract is privately optimal but not socially optimal. Similar conclusions hold also under a nonspatial linear demand model with differentiated products.     

Coexistence of long-term and short-term contracts

We study the length of agreements in a market in which infinitely-lived firms contract with agents that live for two periods. Firms differ in the expected values of their projects, as do workers in their abilities to manage projects. Worker effort is not contractible and worker ability is revealed during the relationship. The market dictates the trade-off between sorting and incentives. Short- and long-term contracts often coexist: The best firms always use short-term contracts to hire high-ability senior workers, firms with less profitable projects use short-term contracts to save on the cost of hiring junior workers, whereas intermediate firms use long-term agreements to provide better incentives to their workers. We relate our results to the optimal assignment literature that follows Becker (1973).     

Welfare reducing licensing

In this paper, we characterize situations where licensing a cost reducing innovation to a rival firm using two-part tariff contracts (a fixed fee plus a linear per unit of output royalty) reduces social welfare. We show that it occurs if (i) the firms compete in prices, (ii) the innovation is large enough but not drastic, and (iii) the goods are close enough substitutes. Moreover, we show that, regardless of the type of competition, first, the optimal contract always includes a positive royalty and, second, even drastic innovations are licensed whenever the goods are not homogeneous.     

‘To sell or not to sell’: Licensing versus selling by an outside innovator

We study various modes of technology transfer of an outside innovator in a spatial framework when the potential licensees are asymmetric. In addition to different licensing options, we also look into the option of selling the property rights of innovation and find the optimal mode of technology transfer. For licensing we find the optimal policy is to offer pure royalty contracts to both licensee firms when cost differentials between the firms are relatively small compared to the transportation cost, otherwise offer a fixed fee licensing contract to the efficient firm only. Interestingly, we show the innovator is always better-off selling the innovation to any one of the firms who further licenses it to the rival firm. The result holds irrespective of the size of the innovation (drastic or non-drastic) and the degree of cost asymmetry between the licensees. Social welfare is greater under selling than licensing.     

License auctions with royalty contracts for (winners and) losers

This paper revisits the licensing of a non-drastic process innovation by an outside innovator to a Cournot oligopoly. We propose a new mechanism that combines a restrictive license auction with royalty licensing. This mechanism is more profitable than standard license auctions, auctioning royalty contracts, fixed-fee licensing, pure royalty licensing, and two-part tariffs. The key features are that royalty contracts are auctioned and that losers of the auction are granted the option to sign a royalty contract. Remarkably, combining royalties for winners and losers of the auction makes the integer constraint concerning the number of licenses irrelevant.     

排他性与非排他性策略下创新授权契约机制研究

分析了不完全信息下,拥有提高产品质量技术的创新企业,在（非）排他性授权策略下,向进行Cournot竞争生产低质量产品的生产企业技术授权的契约优化问题。研究表明,在排他性授权策略下,双重收费契约下信息不完全能使接受授权生产企业赢取更多的创新企业特许权补贴;在非排他性授权策略下,不完全信息能够削弱创新企业通过双重收费契约设计对产品间接市场的垄断程度。在排他性授权交易下,信息不完全使特许权收费契约优于固定收费契约成为可能,这不同于Li and Wang的研究结论。基于提高社会创新能力视角,政府应鼓励创新企业更多采用特许权收费授权契约,削弱信息不对称的影响,赢取更多研发投资利润回报。     

专利技术许可中不质疑条款的法律规制

专利技术许可中的不质疑条款可能掩盖了无效专利的存在,使得被许可人为无效专利支出了不合理的许可费,并可能产生阻碍技术市场竞争和创新的后果,但不质疑条款的存在也可能产生降低许可费、促进专利技术许可和运用等积极后果。法律不应对不质疑条款作出禁止性规定,应将其视为合同法上的可撤销条款。对不质疑条款的规制一般应运用专利法和合同法,而当不质疑条款产生非法限制竞争、阻碍技术进步后果时,则应运用反垄断法对其进行规制。     

Royalty licensing

Most patent licensing agreements observed empirically include either per-unit or ad valorem royalties. The theoretical literature generally focuses on per-unit royalties. We provide a simple justification for the presence of ad valorem royalties in licensing contracts.     

Socially optimal procurement with tight budgets and rationing

We investigate the behaviour of a social planner that secures the supply of a good, e.g. an environmental benefit, through contracting with private agents. While the social planner seeks to maximise net social benefits, she is also controlled with a fixed budget. Private agents are profit maximising and hold private information concerning their variable costs of production. They also have known fixed costs of contracting. We find that budget constraints and fixed costs change the optimal contract design in more than one way: the social planner minimises costs, rations high-cost contracts to reduce fixed costs and information rents, and distorts contracts for all agent types, including low-cost agents. We find that rationing improves social welfare. Also, even though social costs – including tax distortion – are explicitly taken into consideration, they do not affect the design of optimal contracts when budgets are tight. In those cases the budget constraint dominates the solution.     

技术许可中道德风险问题的价格契约治理机制研究

本文利用现代契约经济学基本理论，对同一技术条件下、由技术使用者替代性投入行为而产生的道德风险问题的价格契约治理机制进行了分析。分析结果表明，技术所有者总可以设计一种分离价格契约治理道德风险问题，其中，对自己偏好的高成本投入行为采用纯固定费用，而对低成本投入行为采用“固定费用＋提成费”。本文进一步认为，价格契约中提成费比率对成本效率较高的投入行为所造成的扭曲程度，要大干成本效率较低的投入行为。     

技术许可中道德风险问题的价格契约治理机制研究

本文利用现代契约经济学基本理论,对同一技术条件下、由技术使用者替代性投入行为而产生的道德风险问题的价格契约治理机制进行了分析。分析结果表明,技术所有者总可以设计一种分离价格契约治理道德风险问题,其中,对自己偏好的高成本投入行为采用纯固定费用,而对低成本投入行为采用“固定费用 提成费”。本文进一步认为,价格契约中提成费比率对成本效率较高的投入行为所造成的扭曲程度,要大于成本效率较低的投入行为。     

Endogenous Market Structure and Technology Licensing

This paper analyses the optimal licensing strategy of a licensor firm that competes with potential licensee firms in an industry with endogenous entry. The optimal licensing strategy of the licensor firm is to have zero royalty and positive fixed fees, which is a result that sharply contrasts with the existing literature whereby licensor firms tend to charge positive royalties to their rival licensees. Under the optimal licensing strategy, the licensor firm and the licensee firms are active in the market, but not the non‐licensed firms. This equilibrium market structure is socially desirable if the fixed production cost is not too small.     

政府补贴下区分制造商类型的合约设计

考虑政府补贴下由一个供应商和一个制造商构成的绿色供应链.供应商通过对原材料和产品生产过程的控制来提供绿色产品,也因此能够获得政府补贴.政府依据供应链的最终产品数量向供应商提供补贴,供应商选择制造商以完成最终产品的生产过程,并除采购价格以外按一定比例与制造商分享政府补贴,制造商有生产成本等私人信息.在分析供应商和制造商成本、收益的基础上,建立了一个逆向选择模型,其中供应商提供包括供应数量和补贴分享比例的合约菜单,制造商从中选择一个合约或者拒绝全部合约,依据成本制造商可分为两种类型:较高机会成本和较低机会成本,通过优化合约设计,供应商对不同类型制造商提供不同的供应数量和补贴比例,以实现供应商收益最大化.     

Short or long-term contract? Firm’s optimal choice

This article studies the behaviour of a firm searching to fill a vacancy. The main assumption is that the firm can offer two different kinds of contracts to the workers, either a short-term contract or a long-term one. The short-term contract acts as a probationary stage in which the firm can learn about the worker. After this stage, the firm can propose a long-term contract to the worker or it can decide to look for another worker. We show that, if the short-term wage is fixed endogenously, it can be optimal for firms to start a working relationship with a short-term contract, but that this policy decreases unemployment and welfare. On the contrary, if the wage is fixed exogenously, this policy could be optimal also from a welfare point of view.     

Technology transfer in a horizontally differentiated product market

This paper considers technology transfer in a Cournot-duopoly market where the firms produce horizontally differentiated products. The patent licensing contract consists of up-front fixed fee and per-unit output royalty for products of neither close substitutes nor isolated. In case the goods are close substitutes then only per-unit output royalty is the optimal solution. However, whether the incentive for imitation increases with product differentiation is ambiguous. Further, in case of credible imitation threat, the relationship between better technology transfer and product differentiation may be ambiguous. We have briefly addressed the implications of multiple licensing.     

Investor Reaction to Inter-corporate Business Contracting: Evidence and Explanation

We examine the stock market reaction to 1227 inter-corporate ordinary business contract announcements reported by Dow Jones between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2001. Around contract announcement dates, we find statistically significant positive average abnormal returns and abnormal trading volume for contractors, but insignificant positive abnormal returns and negative abnormal volume for contractees. Cross-sectionally, contract announcement period returns are higher for contractors who are small relative to the contract size, have higher return volatility, larger market-to-book ratios and higher profitability. The announcement period returns of contract-awarding firms are not significant and are only marginally related to cross-sectional explanatory factors. The results are consistent with two explanatory stories: contractor quasi-rents induced by the winner's curse and information signalling about contractor production costs. The results are not consistent with perfect competition, with contracts having positive net present values for both parties, and with a version of incomplete contracting theory.     

A comparison of different contract forms for consumers with switching costs and changed preferences

This paper compares three contract forms, including short-term contract with price discrimination, short-term contract without price discrimination, and long-term contract with price commitment for consumers with switching costs and changed preferences. We find that long-term contract generates the largest profit for firms. Moreover, we find that switching costs make the market more competitive when consumers have changed preferences, and the higher the switching costs, the more competitive. Our theory combines linear-city duopoly and switching-cost model and the results are consistent with literature, for example price commitment is valuable. Our findings shed light on the practice of different forms of dynamic pricing in various industries including telecommunication industry and airline industry.     

Patent licensing in spatial models

We show that a two-part tariff licensing contract is always optimal to the insider patentee in spatial models irrespective of the size of the innovation or any pre-innovation cost asymmetries. The result provides a simple justification of the prevalence of two-part tariff licensing contracts in industries.     

Adverse selection,commitment and exhaustible resource taxation

This paper studies the contractual relationship between a government and a firm in charge of the extraction of an exhaustible resource. Governments design taxation scheme to capture resource rent and they usually propose contracts with limited duration and possess less information on resources than the extractive firms do. This article investigates how information asymmetry on costs and an inability to commit to long-term contracts affect tax revenue and the extraction path. This study gives several unconventional results. First, when information asymmetry exists, the inability to commit does not necessarily lower tax revenues. Second, under asymmetric information without commitment, an efficient firm may produce during the first period more or less than under symmetric information. Hence, the inability to commit has an ambiguous effect on the exhaustion date. Third, the modified Hotelling's rule is such that an increase in the discount factor does not necessarily reduce the first-period extraction.