Yuka Ohno

Uncertainty, spillovers, and cooperative R&D

Abstract This paper extends the literature on cooperative R&D in an oligopoly with spillovers. The model has three new features. It introduces uncertainty, focuses on spillover of innovation instead of effort spillover, and offers a new definition of the research joint venture (RJV). The RJV is an arrangement to coordinate R&D efforts and also to share the innovation. Firms form an RJV only if the innovation raises flow industry profit, but independently of the speed of spillovers and the degree of uncertainty. The model is robust when we allow for licensing, the single lab, endogenous spillovers and R&D effort spillovers.

Endogenous protection, foreign direct investment and protection-building trade

Abstract We introduce the possibility of foreign direct investment (FDI) in a strategic, oligopolistic setting with endogenous protection and find that a number of unique subgame-perfect equilibria may arise, including a new result we call “protection-building trade.” This phenomenon occurs in our model when foreign firms locating production in the home country try to increase protectionist pressures in the home country (through increased exports) to provide larger barriers against other foreign competitors in future periods. We discuss how the foreign firm behavior surrounding significant U.S. protectionist actions, including the VERs on Japanese automobiles, may be consistent with protection-building trade behavior.

Credibility of Protection and Incentives to Innovate

In recent trade policy debates it is often argued that temporary protection stimulates innovation. This paper shows that the validity of the argument depends on the perceived credibility of protection policy. If it is suspected that temporary protection will be removed early should innovation occur before its terminal date, the protected firm invests less in R&D than it does under free trade. If it is expected that protection will be extended should no innovation have occurred by its terminal date, investment falls below the free-trade level, and eventually to zero, as the terminal date is approached. Copyright 1999 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Strategic R&D policy and appropriability

Abstract The Spencer-Brander argument for strategic RD Journal of International Economics, 1994, 36, 133–150) that R&D subsidies are an optimal policy in the presence of uncertainty.

Multinationals, Tax Holidays, and Technology Transfer

Host country governments often grant investment incentives to foreign firms locating in their territories. We show that such preferential treatment of foreign firms can facilitate transfer of foreign technology, induce entry by the local firm, and increase host country welfare. However, this pro-competitive result occurs when preferential treatment is granted for a limited time; i.e., it takes the form of tax holidays, and is absent under permanent tax concessions.

Quota-Induced Cycles

We present a new framework to compare the dynamic effect of tariffs, and quotas in the presence of oligopoly. Suppose that the domestic and the foreign firm play a quantity-setting game over time in a perfectly stationary economy. A Markov-perfect equilibrium has the foreign firm exporting at the constant rate under a tariff. In contrast, under the quota the rate of exports changes monotonically over the course of each year, causing seasonal fluctuations in domestic production. Quota-induced cycles can make dynamic market segmentation possible and raise profits for both the firms above what they earn under the equal-import tariff.

International harmonization of the patent-issuing rules

Using a dynamic model of patent races for two sequential innovations, Scotchmer & Green (1990) compared the effect on R&D incentives of the two patent-issuing rules, first-to-invent and first-to-file, and found first-to-file more conducive to R&D. We show that their result depends on their assumption of fixed innovation probabilities. When innovation probabilities are endogenous for the intermediate invention, their result can be reversed. Our analysis has the obvious implications on the evaluation of the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (2011), whereby the U.S. switched from first-to-invent to first-to-file.

Planting Disinformation through Voluntary Export Restraints

Voluntary export restraints typically are determined in bilateral negotiations between an importing country and a major exporting country, and have the appearance of forcibly limiting exports from the latter while leaving minor exporters unrestrained. However, during the negotiation process the major exporter can acquire insight into the nature of the importing country government. This private information may actually motivate the major exporter to restrain exports voluntarily.

Quotas Under Dynamic Bertrand Competition

We present a new model of dynamic Bertrand competition, where a quota is treated as an intertemporal constraint rather than as a capacity constraint as is common in the literature. The firm under a quota then can still vary the rates of exports over time provided that its total sales within the period do not exceed the quota. We show that a quota results in higher prices than a tariff of equal imports. We also show that firms never play mixed strategies, which contrasts from the result from a one-shot game, in which the only equilibrium under a quota is in mixed strategies.