Modeling Stochastic Innovation Races

We consider a firm moving towards a stochastic final destination, to be chosen from a discrete set after a decision period. The decision period itself may be deterministic or stochastic. We assume the firm can move at variable innovation (R&D) speed associated with a monotone nondecreasing variable cost, and it can also stop and move anywhere. There is a fixed cost per time unit "carried" by the firm as well, associated with keeping at the knowledge (technology) frontier. We investigate various types of the firm's optimal trajectory in the R&D race during the decision period.Innovation, Race, Competition, Strategy, Industrial Economics

Sequential Choice and R&D Racing

This paper develops a framework to analyze how choices are made when R&D competition occurs between two firms, and the aggressiveness-time tradeoffs have to be resolved in multiple stages. At issue is the way in which resources are used at each stage, i.e. are aggressiveness problems undertaken and solved (slowly) or are quick solutions adopted in an effort to get the product to market faster? We first analyze why differently positioned firms choose different targets. We focus on this translation between ex ante asymmetries between firms and ex post asymmetries in the equilibrium outcomes. Our second focus is on understanding the implications of the tradeoff between the level of aggressiveness and time spent on each stage in a multi-stage process.Innovation, Race, Competition, Strategy, Industrial Economics

Technological Races in Global Industries (Technology Races)

The starting point of our consideration on technological racing are stochastic models that view corporations as moving objects to approach a stochastic destination. A major focus is the strategic orientation of corporations in participating in such a race , revealing empirically observable phenomena such as 'catchup' and 'leapfrogging', as supported by statistical measurements. Next to the analysis of behavioural patterns on the corporate or industry level is their aggregation on a national scale that extends to racing on economic growth among (groups of) countries. A major conjecture of the paper is that technological racing patterns on a micro scale reinforce globalization and limit control of national and industry policy.

Negotiation and optimality in an economic model of global climate change

We suggest a two-country, two-sector model as a basis for the control of global climate change in which the dynamic time path of the world economy is analysed under the provision that the outcomes of a negotiation game generate the global optimal solution

An economic approach to monitoring pollution accidents

We model the occurrence of an environmental accident as a stochastic event, in particular the situation of an oil spill is explored. Characteristics of the ship operator, and the different types of the ship's operating environment determine a stochastic process governing the time patterns and size of spills. It is shown that both the time distribution of different types of oil spills, and the distribution of spill size are affected by pollution control instruments such as fines, by enforcement effort, and by the alert level of the operating personnel

Letter from Augusta Gottinger to John Muir, 1907 May 21.

My Dear Mr. Muir:-Your letter, sketch of your life, and book - Mountains of California were received yesterday - It was certainly a very pleasant surprise and gave me much pleasure- I thank you very much for your very kind letter, sketch and book - which I will all read as soon as time will permit, and know I will enjoy it much. You certainly knew great many of my father\u27s friends - he carried on a correspondence with all the botanists you mentioned - and we have their letters now - I too regret that you and my father never met- I feel sure he would have enjoyed knowing you - perhaps sometime you will come this way again- Then you must call and make his daughters a visit - Thanking you again for your much appreciated letter - sketch of life and book I am most Sincerely YoursAugusta Gottinger May 21- 1907 —40 Academy Place NashvilleTennessee0387

Some policy issues of greenhouse gas economics

Note: The author of this report, Hans Gottinger, has been regrettably found guilty of several counts of plagiarism. While we have no definitive proof that this particular work has been plagiarized, we can no longer be confident of its scientific integrity and have thus chosen to remove it from our report series. Climate changes due to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is a longterm global environmental problem. Major policy issues relate to the question of the appropriate negotiating stance in possible multilateral negotiations for an international protocol on GHGs. This paper discusses a few models designed to help policymakers evaluate the likely economic impacts of various schemes for assignments of net emissions quotas

Pollution, technology transfer and sustainable growth

_________________________________________________________ The author of this report, Hans Gottinger, has been regrettably found guilty of several counts of plagiarism. While we have no definitive proof that this particular work has been plagiarized, we can no longer be confident of its scientific integrity and have thus chosen to remove it from our report series.” ___________________________________________________________