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This thesis examines the activities of the central actors in an emerging advanced technology based economy. The interaction and synergy between university based researchers and advanced technology entrepreneurs has opened significant opportunities for economic renewal and development in Western economies. An understanding of the sociological dynamic between these key players is necessary to the process of harnessing this economic potential. The comparison of this dynamic with the activities of organizations such as Canada's Technology Triangle, will perhaps provide insight into more effective methods of encouraging similar development in other communities.

We first derive the optimal price-quality choice of a protected multi-product monopolist operating in a market that could otherwise sustain two or more firms. The main results of this analysis is that in many instances the monopolist will choose not to serve the entire market even when the fixed entry cost is very low and the corresponding number of qualities marketed by the monopolist is very large. Next, we turn our attention to natural duopolies with single-product firms and we examine the implications of entry threats when entry is sequential. Neither is maximal differentiation a general outcome of such competition in the absence of entry threats, nor is minimal differentiation the necessary outcome when entry is contested. When the incumbent firms are facing entry threats, we show that the nature of the fixed cost can confer first mover advantages to the incumbent firms. Next we combine our previous results to examine whether an entry threat will induce a multiproduct monopolist to cover any parts of the market he/she would choose to leave unserved in the absence of such threat. We find that there are many cases where the uncovered market result is robust to the threat of entry. Our next concern is whether a strategic quality choice can protect the monopolist from entry without an increase in the number of qualities as well as whether such a choice can be superior, in terms of profits, to product proliferation. The answer to both questions is positive and the last issue of this thesis is how market coverage is affected by such a strategy. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

With industry lobby groups and optimizing politicians, I have derived trade policies endogenously for a small open economy using game-theoretic approach. I have extensively studied the effects of linkages among industries on their structure of endogenous protection for vertically related industries, horizontally related industries, and for industries which have multiple linkages both through production and consumption. In vertically related industries, I have found that the structure of protection of a downstream (upstream) industry depends on the nature of backward (forward) linkages. Among other results, I have shown that in Nash equilibrium, a downstream industry may support the protection of an upstream industry (a case so far considered a puzzle). In the second model, I have incorporated a non-traded good which is horizontally linked with the traded good and have shown that a non-traded industry can derive protection by lobbying in trade policy formulation. Even if only the non-traded good industry is organized, it distorts what otherwise would have been the free trade situation. It is shown that if the traded and the non-traded good industries are producing gross substitutes (complements) the lobby groups representing these two industries reinforce (cancel) each others' efforts to obtain higher profit. In the third model, I have studied the effects of multiple linkages among industries on the structure of protection. It is shown that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the representation of an industry by a lobby group and its protection through an import tariff or export tax. The net effect of lobbying of an industry depends on how its lobbying activity is neutralized or reinforced by other lobby groups. This model could explain the protection episodes of sugar, sugar user, textile, apparel and wheat industries in the United States. Besides deriving various theoretical results, given taste and technology parameters. I have solved the three-stage game of endogenous trade policy numerically and computed the Pareto efficient frontier. The frontier may be a single point or a line segment. If the frontier is a single point, the game has a unique truthful Nash equilibrium, whereas if it is a line segment, it has a continuum of truthful Nash equilibria.

Market-based economic instruments have become increasingly important as alternatives to conventional methods of environmental regulation, as public policy makers are increasingly aware of the ineffectiveness of command and control regulation. A remarkable breakthrough in the search for lasting solutions to pressing environmental problems is the emergence of the tradeable permits. They recognize the need for establishing property rights prior to addressing the issues of environmental degradation, and offer solutions that are cost-effective, without requiring complex technical information about industry structures to monitor compliance. However, the current literature provides little guidance for evaluating the overall effectiveness of this new economic instrument. The lack of simultaneous emphasis on all of the important dimensions of market-based regulation led to conflicting views among economists as to the significance of tradeable permits, and the circumstances under which they perform effectively. In an attempt to resolve these different viewpoints, this dissertation undertakes an in-depth inquiry into three fundamental facets of tradeable permits, namely political economy aspects, cost aspects and efficiency aspects. The primary emphasis is on the U.S. SO2 emissions trading program which was accompanied by the Amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990 (CAAA). Using a political economy framework, the dissertation examines the institutional dimensions of tradeable permits, and explores how they influence the instrument choice at different stages of the policy making process. The investigation uncovers a number of important linkages of political, social, legal and market conditions, whose interactions determine the desirability of market-based economic instruments over other alternatives. Using examples mainly from the United States, it demonstrates how the performance of tradeable permits depends on situation-specific characteristics of the above factors. The dissertation then considers the cost aspects of the tradeable permits in order to elucidate the behaviour of the affected firms, and to resolve conflicting views of the potential effects of the tradeable permits on the production costs of regulated industries. The investigation is based on an econometric framework and a large-scale data set representing coal-fuelled electric utilities operating in the United States. It reveals that there has been an upward pressure on the production costs of electric utilities in the aftermath of the CAAA, and that as a result, the utilities have adjusted their optimal mix of inputs by shifting away from pollution-intensive inputs. The empirical analysis of market-based regulation then explores efficiency aspects of tradeable permits, based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a Tobit model. This reveals that tradeable permits created an incentive to search for "greener" production technologies as part of the compliance with the new market-based regulation. In particular, the resulting improvements to the existing power generation technologies surpass the increases in production costs. Therefore, the CAAA resulted in a net improvement in production efficiency of the U.S. electric utilities. This evidence is consistent with the latest findings of the literature, and supports the Porter hypothesis, that environmental regulation confers to firms a dynamic incentive to innovate.

Cette these de mai trise propose un modele comparatif traitant de la division internationale du travail et de l'insertion d'une economie nationale, au sein de l'economie mondiale pour la periode de 1990 a 1994. Elle a pour objectifs de decrire, d'etudier, de comparer afin d'identifier les ressemblances et les differences qui existent entre le degre d'insertion des industries manufacturieres nationales de sport, les specialisations nationales et les flux commerciaux entre le Canada, les Etats-Unis, l'Allemagne, le Japon, le Mexique, la Coree et Taiwan. Sur le plan national, la presente etude analyse l'insertion des industries manufacturieres des produits finis de sport des sept pays a partir des specialisations nationales. Elle examine egalement l'interaction commerciale entre les pays de l'etude a partir du concept de polarisation des echanges. Les resultats indiquent que l'industrie manufacturiere des produits finis de sport de la Coree est plus inseree dans les exchanges mondiaux que cell de Taiwan, du Canada, des Etats-Unis, du Mexique, de l'Allemagne et du Japon. Ces pays s'integrent au marche mondial de sport par leurs specialisations nationales et selon leur donation en facteurs de production. Les pays industrialises detiennent une specialisation absolue dans la fabrication des produits de sport de haut de gamme. Les nouveaux pays industrialises se specialisent dans l'industrie legere, reputee pour sa forte intensite de main-d'oeuvre. Finalement, l'intesite des echanges commerciaux est plus forte entre les regions du Sud vers le Nord qu'entre les regions du Nord.

Cette recherche traite de l'integration de la Russie dans l'economie mondiale. Elle est placee dans le contexte de l'universalisation des valeurs ideologiques liberales et de la globalisation mais se limite aux annees 1991 jusqu'a l'ete 1994. Cette periode represente une phase primaire de l'integration: la nouvelle elite politique se proclame liberale et pro-occidentale. Selon notre argumentation theorique, le capital international est la force motrice de la globalisation de l'integration d'un pays dans l'economie monde. Nonobstant, l'acceptation des normes lliberales par les pays post-socalistes tel la Russie n'assure par les pratiques favorables a l'implantation des investissements etrangers qui ont besoin dune stabilisation politique. Face a la situation instable en Russie, l'etat a du recourir a l'assistance exterieure. Notre analyse critique de l'aide occidentale--et celle mobilise par les pays du G7 et l'engagement du Fond monetaire international (FMI) nous amenent a la conclusion que le FMI s'avere la plus efficace pour l'integration de la Russie dans l'economie monde. Ses programmes dits macro-economiques sont de nature politique--la mise en place d'un regime economique et politique liberal et l'appui a l'elite politique liberale. Ainsi le FMI a contribue a creer un climat politique approprie aux investissements. Toujours est-il que le cout--le mecontentement social et l'opposition politique qu'elle provoque--pourraient mettre en cause la survie politique du regime reformiste et la continuite meme des reformes.