Licensing a new product with non-linear contracts

Abstract .  This paper looks at a situation where a licensor owns a patent on a technology that allows the production of a new good. The licensor seeks to license its innovation to a set of producers that differ according to their marginal cost of producing an existing good. We show that the licensor is able to obtain the profit a monopolist would achieve by producing the new good. The equilibrium licensing contract specifies both a fixed fee and a royalty scheme based on the production of a licensee.     

成都创建国家环境保护模范城市的启示

成都市创建国家环境保护模范城市活动进一步改善了城市创业环境和人居环境,全面提升了城市服务功能与综合价值,提高了公众生活质量,使成都市初步走上了环境和经济相互促进,人与自然和谐共生的可持续发展道路,呈现出经济快速发展、环境清洁优美、生态良性循环的良好态势。从成都创建国家环境保护模范城市实践中,我们可以得到以下启示:创建国家环境保护模范城市是构建和谐社会,落实科学发展观,全面建设小康社会,提高城市综合实力与城市竞争力的前提;创建国家环境保护模范城市必须承担发展经济和保护生态的双重任务,并且需要建立持续增长的投入机制;国家环境保护模范城市建设更需要注重生态型社会的建设。     

Congestion with heterogeneous commuters

We study a congestion model where a continuum of heterogeneous commuters make a binary choice between riding a bus and driving private vehicles for their commutes. Formulating the model as a large game, we establish the existence and uniqueness of a nontrivial Nash equilibrium and analyze how a gasoline tax affects the allocation of commuters between public transportation and private vehicles at the equilibrium. Based on the analysis, we provide a sufficient condition under which a gasoline tax is Pareto improving. We also prove the existence of a socially optimal policy that minimizes the aggregate loss to all commuters.     

A dynamic analysis of the differential incidence of capital and labour taxes in a two-class economy

This paper studies a differential incidence model, where a rise in a capital tax is accompanied by a change in a labour tax to hold constant the per capita government revenue, in a two-class growing economy. The major concern is to analyse the conditions necessary for the burden of such a tax substitution to fall solely, partially, or inconsequentially on capitalists or workers. The results obtained indicate that a higher rate of capital tax tends to impose a greater burden on workers.     

A Pre-purchase Product Trial of a Monopolist with Multiple Products

For the heterogeneous consumers who do not know their individual utilities from a new product, a pre-purchase product trial would be helpful. We found out that a monopoly firm with two similar products would have a strong incentive not to allow a pre-purchase product trial, even though it is socially optimal to allow it. Furthermore, it is more likely for a monopoly firm with a pre-purchase product trial policy to introduce a new product to the market when introducing a new product is socially optimal.     

Strategic trade policy under asymmetric information with screening

The design of strategic rent-extracting trade policies requires information that may be private, such as the cost structure of an industry or parameters of the demand function. As a consequence, under asymmetric information, the design of these policies is problematic. We propose screening menus consisting of different instruments (tariff vs. quota) designed to solve this informational issue. We first use a simple model that examines a Cournot duopoly between a domestic firm and a foreign firm with linear demand and cost functions, with both firms supplying a homogeneous good on the domestic market. In this scenario, if the government does not have information regarding the demand parameter, which is known by both firms, a menu consisting of a rent-extracting tariff for a low demand parameter and a rent-extracting quota for a high demand parameter maximizes the government's objective function. This menu leads the domestic firm to reveal private information. We then generalize this framework to a scenario with imperfect information regarding the firms' marginal cost. Finally, we discuss the issue of quotas generating public revenues and study the case of a menu consisting of a tariff and a free quota.     

Concave utility on finite sets

When does a preference relation on a finite set have a concave or a strictly concave utility function? We provide a complete answer. Our proof is an application of the Theorem of the Alternative, and constructs a concave utility if one exists.     

Hate Springs Eternal

Some years ago I worked on a merger between my company and another-although, in my opinion, there is no such thing as a merger. There is only a process by which one company gobbles up a competitor. Sometimes it's a big fish downing a little one. On other occasions, a tiny fish with big leverage swallows an entity ten times its size, like a snake eating a boar.     

Minimum investment requirement,financial market imperfection and self-fulfilling belief

We develop a model in which a strategic complementarity in saving decisions arises due to a minimum investment requirement and financial market imperfection. We explore the role of self-fulling beliefs in determining the long run dynamics. The model exhibits a wide range of dynamic phenomena such as a poverty trap, a big push and a sunspot equilibrium, depending on the level of financial market imperfection. They account for excessive volatility and a sudden change in the saving rate and its macroeconomic consequences without any shocks to fundamentals.     

Donor Altruism and the Transfer Paradox in an Overlapping Generations Model

This paper examines the transfer problem between two countries when a donor exhibits altruistic utility toward a recipient in a one‐sector overlapping generations model. We demonstrate that if the donor has a larger marginal propensity to save than the recipient, the donor's altruism never contributes to donor enrichment irrespective of the degree of the donor's altruism. Donor enrichment occurs only if the donor has a smaller marginal propensity to save and a sufficiently high level of altruism. These findings imply that the altruism of a donor toward a recipient does not necessarily explain the motivation to voluntarily provide a transfer.     

A middle income trap in a small open economy: Modeling the Argentinean case

This paper presents a model of the conditions that may lead a small open economy towards a middle income trap. This situation has shown to be pervasive in Latin America. As Argentina is a salient instance of this phenomenon, we develop a stylized model of its economy at the first decades of the XXth century. It consists of a general equilibrium model of an open emerging economy, which is a price-taking primary goods exporter. A growth process is triggered by an increase of commodity prices, due to an upward jump of the world demand of these goods. The economy goes through several phases of growth, starting from a subsistence stage. Once decreasing returns set in, the economy reaches a steady state. Only a sustained high demand of its export products allows the economy to thrive. Otherwise, the economy gets entrapped in a middle income level.     

Bank competition and optimal monetary policies under alternative reserve accounting schemes

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical analysis of the implications of increased competition among depository financial institutions for the optimal conduct of monetary policy with respect to the ultimate goals of price and output stability. In the context of a general equilibrium model which includes rational expectations and a market for bank deposits, it is shown that a rise in bank rivalry for deposits produces a more steeply sloped LM schedule. Under a system of lagged required reserve accounting, this fact has no effect on the optimal conduct of monetary policy, which requires an operating procesure designed to target a market interest rate. However, under a system of contemporaneous reserve accounting, this fact implies that less emphasis should be placed on a market interest rate as a variable upon which the Fed's setting of reserves should be conditioned.     

SMOKE-FREE ORDINANCES INCREASE RESTAURANT PROFIT AND VALUE

This study estimates the value added to a restaurant by a smoke-free policy using regression analysis of the purchase price of restaurants as a function of the presence of a smoke-free law and other control variables. There was a median increase of 16% (interquartile range 11% to 25%) in the sale price of a restaurant in a jurisdiction with a smoke-free law compared to a comparable restaurant in a community without such a law. This result indicates that contrary to claims made by opponents of smoke-free laws, these laws are associated with an increase in restaurant profitability. (JEL I120 , H000 , D780 )     

冲突管理方式对团队绩效的影响研究

通过实证验证了不同冲突管理方式影响不同类型团队绩效的研究模型与假设,并进行了讨论。采用陈国权（Guoquan Chen,2000）团队绩效以及Rahim和Magner开发的包括整合式、帮助式、支配式、折衷式、逃避式的冲突管理方式的5因子量表,通过有效的问卷调查,应用SPSS进行数据分析,进而验证工作团队中整合式呈显著正影响,帮助式呈不显著负影响,支配式呈不显著正影响,折衷式呈不显著负影响,逃避式呈不显著负影响;并行团队中整合式呈显著正影响,帮助式呈显著正影响,支配式呈正影响,折衷式呈显著负影响,逃避式呈显著负影响;项目团队中整合式呈显著正影响;帮助式呈不显著负影响,支配式呈不显著正影响,折衷式呈不显著负影响,逃避式呈不显著正影响;管理团队中整合式呈显著正影响,帮助式呈不显著正影响,支配式呈不显著正影响,折衷式呈不显著负影响,逃避式呈不显著正影响。     

Residential land use: The continous case

This note presents a theorem on the existence and spatial properties of a unique competitive equilibrium of a pure exchange economy with a continuum of locations, a continuum of identical consumers and a single market place.     

Optimal education policies under endogenous borrowing constraints

This paper studies optimal education policies under endogenous borrowing constraints in a standard life-cycle model. In a closed economy, a policy that appropriately bundles an education subsidy with an old-age pension can restore the complete market allocation. Such a policy also removes persistent indeterminacies and endogenous fluctuations that exist in its absence. In a small open economy, a similar policy may restore the complete market allocation for a wide range of parameters, a range much wider than previously believed. These results broaden the rationale for a two-armed welfare state (education and pension) to a large class of economies.     

Cross-border acquisitions from developing countries under decreasing returns to scale

Portuguese Economic Journal - We assume that a firm from a developing country wants to acquire a firm from a developed country with better technology. The acquirer, which may be a private firm or a...     

The benefits of the reciprocal grantback clause in patent licensing

This paper shows that a reciprocal grantback clause could potentially be a better licensing provision than a one-way type. There are two benefits associated with the use of a reciprocal grantback clause. First, it improves efficiency by reducing the (minimum) contract compatible royalty rate to zero. As a result, the production becomes efficient because both the licensor and the licensee produce at the same marginal cost. Second, a reciprocal grantback clause is a more effective provision than a one-way grantback clause to guarantee the transfer of superior technology, hence it promotes better technology diffusion.     

Growth,Distribution, and External Constraints: A Post-Kaleckian Model Applied to Brazil

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to analyze whether the Brazilian economy behaved under a wage-led or profit-led regime between 1960 and 2011, considering a Post-Kaleckian model in a context of external constraints. The time span is limited by data availability (i.e., 2011). To answer the question of whether the Brazilian economy works under a wage-led or profit-led regime, we propose a simple Post-Kaleckian model. The model suggests that a profit-led regime is more probable for Brazil. Moreover, a wage-led regime occurs when a balance of payments constrained growth model is taken into consideration. Likewise, the real exchange rate has a positive impact on economic growth through the export channel. This result is a novelty in the recent literature about the relationship between real exchange rate and economic growth within a Post-Kaleckian model. The Brazilian economy was chosen as it is one of the biggest economies in Latin America.