Parallel Imports and Innovation in an Emerging Economy

This paper studies the consequences of parallel import (PI) on process innovation of firms heterogeneous in their production technology. In an international setting where foreign markets differ with respect to their intellectual property rights regime, a move by a technologically inferior firm to exploit a new unregulated market can result in imitation and PI. The impact of PI on innovation is determined by the degree of heterogeneity between firms and trade costs. Increasing trade costs shifts from the market share losses brought by PI from the more to the less productive firm. This induces the former to invest more in R&D. At this point, sales in the foreign market become a determinant of the R&D decision by the technologically inferior firm. For low levels of firm heterogeneity, PI increases output by this firm targeted for the unregulated market, hence increases its innovation efforts. A tariff policy accompanied by opening borders to PI only increases welfare when the technological gap between the two firms is sufficiently large.Intellectual Property Rights, Parallel Imports, Innovation, Trade Costs, Welfare

Parallel Imports and Innovation in an Emerging Economy

This paper studies the consequences of parallel import (PI) on process innovation of firms heterogeneous in their production technology. In an international setting where foreign markets differ with respect to their intellectual property rights regime, a move by a technologically inferior firm to exploit a new unregulated market can result in imitation and PI. The impact of PI on innovation is determined by the degree of heterogeneity between firms and trade costs. Increasing trade costs shifts from the market share losses brought by PI from the more to the less productive firm. This induces the former to invest more in R&D. At this point, sales in the foreign market become a determinant of the R&D decision by the technologically inferior firm. For low levels of firm heterogeneity, PI increases output by this ?rm targeted for the unregulated market, hence increases its Innovation efforts. A tariff policy accompanied by opening borders to PI only increases welfare when the technological gap between the two firms are suffciently large.Intellectual property rights; Parallel imports; Innovation; Trade costs; Welfare

Presence and rehabilitation: toward second-generation virtual reality applications in neuropsychology

Virtual Reality (VR) offers a blend of attractive attributes for rehabilitation. The most exploited is its ability to create a 3D simulation of reality that can be explored by patients under the supervision of a therapist. In fact, VR can be defined as an advanced communication interface based on interactive 3D visualization, able to collect and integrate different inputs and data sets in a single real-like experience. However, "treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best" (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi). For rehabilitators, this statement supports the growing interest in the influence of positive psychological state on objective health care outcomes. This paper introduces a bio-cultural theory of presence linking the state of optimal experience defined as "flow" to a virtual reality experience. This suggests the possibility of using VR for a new breed of rehabilitative applications focused on a strategy defined as transformation of flow. In this view, VR can be used to trigger a broad empowerment process within the flow experience induced by a high sense of presence. The link between its experiential and simulative capabilities may transform VR into the ultimate rehabilitative device. Nevertheless, further research is required to explore more in depth the link between cognitive processes, motor activities, presence and flow

Transportation Technology in a Duopoly Model of International Trade.

In this paper I will evaluate the role of R&D investment in transport and communication in a duopoly with trade. I will in fact consider the strategic behavior of two firms located in two different countries. They can activate R&D investments in order to improve the technology of the transportation process. Transport and communication (TC) costs are of iceberg type, i.e. only a fraction of the goods shipped abroad reaches the foreign market. I will then study a game in which firms may priorly commit themselves to a certain level of R&D investment and then they play in the market. As for the marketgame, I will consider both a Cournot duopoly with homogeneous products and a Bertrand duopoly with differentiated goods. In both models, my analysis suggests that firms are willing to invest in transport and communication technology when such a strategy yurns out to be efficient, i.e. when it does not imply an excessive cost. More precisely, a variety of equilibria will aarise as a result of different levels of TC r&D efficiency. If the cost is low the game has an equilibrium in dominant strategies where both firms invest in TC and maximize the aggregate profit. As the cost increases, the game becomes a prisoner`s dilemma; both firms still invest in Tc but they do not reach the Pareto-efficient solution. For even higher levels of the cost required, the game shows an equilibrium in dominant strategies where no firms finances TC R&D and the aggregate profit is maximized

Product Innovation and Transportation Technology in a Cournot Duopoly

In this paper I will evaluate the strategic behavior of two firms which can activate R&D investments either to process or to product innovation. I will consider a particular kind of process R&D activity, which I will call Transport and Communication R&D and which aims at increasing the net amount of the product that reaches consumers. I will limit my study to a Cournot duopoly setting. The strategic interaction will be therefre axpressed in terms of a two-stage three strategy game, where firms first decide whether to invest in one of the two types of R&D and then they compete in the market by setting quantities. As a result, I will obtain both symmetric and asymmetric equilibria, depending on the relative efficiency of the R&D effert

The strategic effect of bundling: a new perspective

This paper investigates the strategic effect of bundling when a multi-product firm producing two complements faces competition in both markets. I consider a demand structure where both Cournot and Bertrand competition can be evaluated. Bundling is completely ineffective when firms compete in quantities. On the contrary, under Bertrand competition, selling the two goods in a package is profitable when the goods produced by the rivals are perceived as close substitutes to those produced by the multi-product firm. Bundling drives prices up, and not only consumer surplus, but also social welfare shrinks, thus calling for the intervention of the antitrust agency

Market Expansion and Elasticity Improvement as complementary Marketing Activities

Consider a marketing division of a monopoly firm that faces two marketing options: Market enlargement and elasticity improvement. These options are conceived in terms of the target of the firm’s advertising campaigns: Potential new consumers versus existing consumers. Using a CES demand function in a simple model, we demonstrate that the two activities are complementary, so that for some cost configurations, the firm will find it profitable to implement the two options together when either option alone would result in a loss. This calls for the marketing division to be integrated, rather than decentralized

Process and product innovation by a multiproduct monopolist: a dynamic approach

We model the optimal behaviour of a multiproduct monopolist investing both in process and in product innovation in a dynamic setting. Product innovation reduces the degree of substitutability between any two varieties. First, we find that R&D efforts increase in both directions as the number of varieties grows. Second, we characterise the relative intensity of R&D activities according to the reservation price and the interaction between the number of varieties and the degree of product differentiation. Finally, we show the existence of complementarity within the R&D portfolio, i.e., decreasing marginal production cost prompts for an analogous reduction of product substitutability, and conversely

Parallel Imports and Innovation in an Emerging Economy

This paper studies the consequences of parallel import (PI) on process innovation of firms heterogeneous in their production technology. In an international setting where foreign markets differ with respect to their intellectual property rights regime, a move by a technologically inferior firm to exploit a new unregulated market can result in imitation and PI. The impact of PI on innovation is determined by the degree of heterogeneity between firms and trade costs. Increasing trade costs shifts from the market share losses brought by PI from the more to the less productive firm. This induces the former to invest more in R&D. At this point, sales in the foreign market become a determinant of the R&D decision by the technologically inferior firm. For low levels of firm heterogeneity, PI increases output by this firm targeted for the unregulated market, hence increases its Innovation efforts. A tariff policy accompanied by opening borders to PI only increases welfare when the technological gap between the two firms are sufficiently large

Hedonic vs Environmental Quality: Which Policy Can Help in Lowering Pollution Emissions?

In this paper we compare two policy instruments that can be adopted to curb carbon emissions. The first is a conventional pollution tax. The second is an environmental campaign aiming to influence consumers to switch to a green good. We consider two different scenarios. When consumers are characterized by hedonic quality preferences, in this case the pollution tax is more efficient than the campaign. On the contrary, when consumers develop environmental quality preferences, there are cases in which the campaign is preferred. To sum up, while both policy instruments are effective in reducing pollution emissions, their efficiency viewed from a welfare perspective crucially depends on consumers' environmental awareness