Chapter 1: Patents and Entry Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Role of Marketing Exclusivity Effective patent length for innovation drugs is severely curtailed because of extensive efficacy and safety tests required for FDA approval, raising concern over adequacy of incentives for new drug development. The Hatch-Waxman Act extends patent length for new drugs by five years, but also promotes generic entry by simplifying approval procedures and granting 180-day marketing exclusivity to a first generic entrant before the patent expires. In this paper we present a dynamic model to examine the effect of marketing exclusivity. We find that marketing exclusivity may be redundant and its removal may increase generic firms' profits and social welfare. Chapter 2: Why Authorized Generics?: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations Facing generic competition, the brand-name companies some-times launch generic versions themselves called authorized generics. This practice is puzzling. If it is cannibalization, it cannot be profitable. If it is divisionalization, it should be practiced always instead of sometimes. I explain this phenomenon in terms of switching costs in a model in which the incumbent first develops a customer base to ready itself against generic competition later. I show that only sufficiently low switching costs or large market size justifies launch of AGs. I then use prescription drug data to test those results and find support. Chapter 3: The Merger Paradox and R&D Oligopoly theory says that merger is unprofitable, unless a majority of firms in industry merge. Here, we introduce R&D opportunities to resolve this so-called merger paradox. We have three results. First, when there is one R&D firm, that firm can profitably merge with any number of non-R&D firms. Second, with multiple R&D firms and multiple non-R&D firms, all R&D firms can profitably merge. Third, with two R&D firms and two non-R&D firms, each R&D firms prefer to merge with a non-R&D firm. With three or more than non-R&D firms, however, the R&D firms prefer to merge with each other.

In this thesis, a framework for market-based resource allocation in manufacturing is developed and described. The most salient feature of the proposed framework is that it builds on a foundation of well-established economic theory and uses the theory to guide both the agent and market design. There are two motivations for introducing the added complexity of the market metaphor into a decision-making environment that is traditionally addressed using monolithic, centralized techniques. First, markets are composed of autonomous, self-interested agents with well defined boundaries, capabilities, and knowledge. By decomposing a large, complex decision problem along these lines, the task of formulating the problem and identifying its many conflicting objectives is simplified. Second, markets provide a means of encapsulating the many interdependencies between agents into a single mechanism—price. By ignoring the desires and objectives of all other agents and selfishly maximizing their own expected utility over a set of prices, the agents achieve a high degree of independence from one another. Thus, the market provides a means of achieving distributed computation. To test the basic feasibility of the market-based approach, a prototype, system is used to generate solutions to small instances of a very general class of manufacturing scheduling problems. The agents in the system bid in competition with other agents to secure contracts for scarce production resources. In order to accurately model the complexity and uncertainty of the manufacturing environment, agents are implemented as decision-theoretic planners. By using dynamic programming, the agents can determine their optimal course of action given their resource requirements. Although each agent-level planning problem (like the global level planning problem) induces an unsolvably large Markov Decision Problem, the structured dynamic programming algorithm exploits sources of independence within the problem and is shown to greatly increase the size of problems that can be solved in practice. In the final stage of the framework, an auction is used to determine the ultimate allocation of resource bundles to parts. Although the resulting combinational auctions are generally intractable, highly optimized algorithms do exist for finding efficient equilibria. In this thesis, a heuristic auction protocol is introduced and is shown to be capable of eliminating common modes of market failure in combinational auctions. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Contrairement au mouvement d’externalisation constaté depuis plusieurs décennies dans le secteur textile-habillement-cuir, les entreprises appartenant au segment du luxe affichent un degré d’intégration verticale de plus en plus poussé. Ce travail de thèse s’attache à mettre en lumière les causes et les conséquences de cette stratégie en mobilisant les concepts et les méthodes de l’économie industrielle.Le fonctionnement spécifique de l’industrie du luxe nous amène à privilégier une approche micro-économique basée sur des données qualitatives et quantitatives recueillies sur 21 entreprises, ainsi que des modèles économétriques menées sur 18 d’entre elles.Cette thèse montre que la stratégie d’intégration verticale mise en œuvre par les entreprises répond en premier lieu à une recherche d’efficience productive et de captation de rente. Elle a eu pour effet de renforcer les barrières à l’entrée existantes sur le segment du luxe et contribué à accroître les performances des acteurs installés. / Unlike the outsourcing trend stated during the last decades in the textile-apparel-leather sector, luxury-fashion firms show in increasing degree of vertical integration. This thesis’ aim is to reveal the objectives and effects of this strategic move using the concepts and methods of industrial economics.The specific behavior of the luxury industry lead us to choose a microeconomic approach, based on quantitative and qualitative data gather on 21 luxury companies, and empirical statistical tests carried out on 18 firms.Results show that the main justification for a greater level of integration is the search for efficiency and rent-seeking strategies. This strategy led to higher barriers to entry on the luxury market and increased performances for installed firms.

Dans de nombreuses industries, les producteurs doivent passer par des intermédiaires afin de distribuer leurs produits sur les marchés. Par exemple, dans le secteur de la grande distribution alimentaire, les producteurs vendent leurs produits à des distributeurs qui ont un accès direct aux consommateurs finaux; dans les secteurs de la santé, les fournisseurs de soins médicaux (e.g., les hôpitaux) traitent avec les assureurs afin d’avoir accès aux patients. Toutes ces industries sont souvent caractérisées par une structure oligopolistique bilatérale avec un petit nombre d'entreprises opérant sur les deux côtés du marché, impliquant des relations commerciales complexes entre les acteurs. En effet, les externalités contractuelles sont omniprésentes dans ce type d’environnement puisque la valeur générée par une transaction et partagée entre un fabricant et un détaillant dépend généralement des décisions contractuelles des autres entreprises opérant sur le marché. Un certain nombre de pratiques, communément appelées « restrictions verticales », peuvent également survenir, telles que des contrats d'exclusivité, des pratiques de ventes liées, ou bien des fixations de prix de revente. En outre, les conditions tarifaires sont principalement déterminées par un processus de négociation entre les entreprises. L’objet de ma recherche consiste à analyser comment les relations verticales entre entreprises dans un contexte aussi complexe que celui des oligopoles bilatéraux peuvent avoir un impact sur le surplus du consommateur et le bon fonctionnement de l’industrie. Dans le premier chapitre de ma thèse, j’élabore un modèle d’économétrie structurelle afin d’analyser empiriquement les relations producteur- distributeur dans des oligopoles bilatéraux avec produits différenciés. L’approche contraste avec la plupart des méthodes empiriques antérieures et permet d’identifier la division du surplus entre les entreprises sans la nécessité d’avoir des données sur les contrats de gros et les coûts marginaux des firmes. Le deuxième chapitre se concentre sur l’étude des effets générés par la formation d’alliances entre distributeurs pour négocier des tarifs communs et acheter des produits auprès de leurs fournisseurs. En utilisant des données d’achats sur les eaux embouteillées réalisés par un panel de consommateurs représentatif de la population Française, j'estime un modèle structurel de demande et d'offre. Je réalise ensuite des simulations pour étudier les effets de trois alliances formées par des distributeurs dans le secteur de la distribution alimentaire en France. Les résultats montrent que le pouvoir de négociation des distributeurs est affaibli, le profit total de l'industrie diminue, et que les consommateurs finaux font face à des prix plus élevés. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse analyse la pratique du «full-line forcing» comme mécanisme d’éviction sur les marchés verticalement liées. Je considère un modèle dans lequel un producteur multi-produit offre une marque leader et une marque secondaire sur laquelle il est en concurrence avec une entreprise plus efficace. Le modèle permet de mettre en évidence que le « full-line forcing » est une stratégie de négociation efficace car elle permet au producteur multi-produit d’influer sur les points de menace dans les négociations et d’imposer son portefeuille de marques sur les étagères du distributeur, excluant ainsi le producteur concurrent. Cette stratégie émerge à l’équilibre sous trois conditions : (i) la marque leader de l’entreprise multi-produit est suffisamment forte, (ii) son inefficacité sur la marque secondaire n’est pas trop sévère, et (iii) le fournisseur concurrent est assez puissant dans sa négociation avec le distributeur. Les résultats suggèrent que les consommateurs finaux et le bien-être total peuvent être réduit alors que, dans certains cas, le distributeur bénéficie d’une telle stratégie d’éviction. / In many economic environments, producers need to deal with intermediaries to supply their products on markets. Examples include grocery markets in which food manufacturers sell their products to retailers who have direct access to final consumers; pharmaceutical industries where manufacturers distribute their drugs on markets through drugstores; multichannel television industries where cable channels sell their programs to multichannel video program distributors who then charge fees to consumers; private healthcare sectors in which medical providers (e.g., hospitals) deal with insurers to have access to sick patients. One particular feature of such industries is that they are often characterized by a bilateral oligopolistic structure with a small number of firms operating on both sides of the market, resulting in complex vertical relationships. Contracting externalities are indeed intrinsic to such environments because the value generated by a transaction and shared between a manufacturer and a retailer generally depends on the contracting decisions of other firms operating on the market. A number of practices, commonly referred to as vertical restraints, may also arise such as exclusive dealing, bundling and tying, resale price maintenance, or quantity discounts. Furthermore, trading terms are mostly determined through a bargaining process between upstream and downstream firms rather than being fixed by one-side of the market. My research consists in analyzing how vertical relationships between firms in such complex settings impact consumer surplus and total welfare. To this end, I rely on both theoretical models and empirical methods to derive predictions of the effects of contractual arrangements within the supply chain. In the first chapter of this dissertation I design a structural framework to analyze manufacturer-retailer relationships in bilateral oligopolies with differentiated products. Our approach contrasts with most prior empirical models of bargaining and allows to identify the division of surplus between firms without data on wholesale contracts and marginal costs. The second chapter investigates the economic effects of alliances formed by retailers to negotiate common prices and purchase products from manufacturers. I use household- level scanner data on bottled water purchases and estimate a structural model of demand and supply. I perform simulations to study the economic effects of three buyer alliances that have been formed by competing retailers in the French food retail sector. Results show that the bargaining power of retailers is weakened, total industry profit decreases, and final consumers face higher prices. The third chapter examines the case of full-line forcing as a foreclosure device in vertically related markets. We consider a setting in which a multi-product manufacturer offers a leading brand and a secondary brand for which it competes with a more efficient single-product firm. We show that full-line forcing is an efficient bargaining strategy as it allows the multi-product manufacturer to affect threat points and impose its brand portfolio on the retailer’s shelves therefore excluding the rival supplier. This strategy arises in equilibrium under three conditions (i) the leading brand of the multi- product firm is strong enough, (ii) the inefficiency on the secondary brand is not too severe, and (iii) the rival supplier is powerful enough in its bargaining with the retailer. Our results suggest that final consumers and total welfare may be harmed whereas, in some cases, the retailer benefits from such a foreclosure strategy.

Объектом исследования являются электроэнергетические компании с иностранным капиталом, функционирующие в России (ОАО «Фортум», ПАО «Энел Россия», ОАО «Э.Он»). Предметом исследования является деятельность энергетических компаний с иностранным капиталом по достижению конкурентных преимуществ на электроэнергетическом рынке. Данная работа включает в себя введение, три главы, заключение, список литературы и приложение. В первой главе магистерской диссертации рассмотрены принципы формирования электроэнергетической отрасли России, дана общая характеристика российского рынка электроэнергетики, рассмотрены объемы и формы участия иностранных игроков на российском рынке электроэнергетики. Во второй главе проанализировано современное состояние электроэнергетических компаний, выявлены основные проблемы развития конкуренции на российском рынке электроэнергетики. В третьей главе проанализирована эффективность функционирования иностранных компаний на российском рынке и стратегии компаний по достижению конкурентных преимуществ на российском рынке. Заключение содержит основные выводы и предложения по повышению эффективности функционирования анализируемых компаний. / The object of the study are electricity companies with foreign capital operating in Russia (JSC "Fortum", JSC "Enel Russia", JSC "E. on"). The subject of theses is the activity of energy companies with foreign capital in achieving competitive advantages in the electricity market. This work includes an introduction, three chapters, conclusion, bibliography and Appendix. There are the principles of organization of the Russian power industry, General characteristics of the Russian electricity market, consider the amount and forms of participation of foreign players in the Russian electricity market In the first Chapter of a thesis. The second Chapter analyzes the current state of the electricity companies, the basic problems of developing competition on the Russian electricity market. The third Chapter investigates the effectiveness of the functioning of foreign companies in the Russian market and the strategy of companies to achieve competitive advantages on the Russian market. Conclusion contains the main findings and suggestions for improving the functioning of the researched companies.

The industrial revolution was the start of increasing technological advancements that are continuing to grow today. Technology improves accuracy, efficiency and is more productive in comparison to human labor as it does not require breaks and cannot violate any labor laws. With many innovations available today, firms have more options to choose from and can select the relatively cheaper solution. The push for a fifteen-dollar minimum wage affects the firm's options, and the use of technology might increasingly become the more viable choice. This study took data from the years 1993 to 2016 and created two regressions using the unemployment rate and job automation rate as the dependent variables. The independent variables looked at were the year, the population growth rate, the minimum wage, inflation, the gross domestic product growth rate, and the consumer price index. After normality checks and transformations were done two regressions were run, and the models were studied to determine the effects. Both regressions were found to be valid with f-statistics lower than one percent. All the statistically significant variables were retained in the model, and the insignificant variables were omitted to reproduce the regression and check for accuracy. The models with the lower Akaike's information criterion and Bayesian information criterion values were kept and used as the final models. Overall the regressions found that the year and consumer price index had the most substantial effects on the unemployment rate, and the consumer price index had the strongest effect on the automation rate. Limitations on the study include the data available, a possible lag in the effect of the minimum wage, and the possible inaccuracy in using industrial robot installation as a measure for job automation.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis examines the development of a capital goods industry in Mendoza Argentina through an analysis of linkages and industrial governance systems. Linkages are material, informational, and financial flows among firms. Industrial governance systems are the social practices that cement linkages. Hence, linkages are understood as socially embedded and not as market transactions governed solely by price considerations. The study has two major arguments. First, it claims that contrary to conventional industrial location theory firms do not locate in view of the previous existence of certain favorable factors, but rather construct these factors as they grow. This argument is operationalized by asking how firms generate in time their own linkages. Examples taken from the 1895-1990 period include labor and subcontractors, clientele, services, and the emergence of economic groups. Second, this study argues that the capital-goods industry in Mendoza is undergoing a Substantial (and unprecedented) transition in the way production is organized. The transition is part of the larger shift taking place at both the national and global scales. The analysis focuses on the historical pattern of linkages and governance systems in the industry, and contrasts that pattern with that of the recent decade. Implicit in the previous two arguments are two territorial dimensions. First, the development of “industry produces regions" (Storper and Walker 1989). Second, at the intra-city level this means that the evolution of the industry (and specifically its linkage structure and governance systems) has a direct bearing on the direction and nature of the city’s growth. These two arguments are illustrated through empirical work in Mendoza, a city of close to a million people in western Argentina. Over 100 interviews gathered over ten months reveal the origins, evolution, and current form of linkages in the capital-goods industry. These interviews are complemented by data from a variety of sources. The main conclusions of the study are three. First, the study illustrates the richness and depth that emerges from a project based on substantial fieldwork. Second, it shows the advantages of conceiving industrialization not as the location of plants in response to favorable conditions, but as a process initiated by the firms themselves. Third, the dissertation shows that the capital-goods industry of Mendoza iS in a transitional phase towards new ways of organizing production. The transition is expressed in new linkage structures, new governance systems, and the emergence of new types of firms and institutional arrangements. / Ph. D.

El estudio se enfoca en la organización del rubro metalmecánico JAMLI S.C.R.L., dedicada a la fabricación de todo tipo de repuestos para mototaxis en la región Lambayeque. Una de las piezas principales que fabrica son las bocinas con pestaña, la cual cuenta con una gran demanda en el mercado no atendida en su totalidad y con procesos de fabricación que presentan una baja productividad debido a diferentes causas, lo que genera un impacto económico negativo de 22 893,6 soles en utilidad contra la empresa. Frente a este problema se planteó la siguiente pregunta ¿de qué manera se puede mejorar el proceso de fabricación de bocinas con pestaña en la empresa JAMLI S.C.R.L? Se logró proponer un nuevo puesto de trabajo para el proceso productivo, con base en el forjado en caliente. Asimismo, se planteó una nueva distribución de planta, un plan de implementación de 5S, tiempos estándares para el proceso y finalmente un plan de capacitación al personal. Con la mejora realizada, se logró elevar la productividad en un 400% y de esta manera poder atender el total de la demanda del producto en estudio. Se determinó que el proyecto tendrá una inversión total de S/. 22 495, con una tasa interna de retorno del 53%, un valor neto actualde S/. 49 132,56 a un plazo de 5 años yun período de recuperación de 1 año, 7 meses y 27 días, siendo un proyecto muy viable y rentable para la empresa en estudio. / The study focuses on the organization of the metalworking industry JAMLI S.C.R.L.,dedicated to the manufacture of all types of motorcycle taxi parts in the Lambayeque region. One of the main parts that it manufactures are the flanged horns, which have a great demand in the market that is not fully attended and with manufacturing processes that present low productivity due to different causes, which generates a negative economic impact of 22 893,6 soles in profit against the company. Faced with this problem, the following question was raised, in what way can the manufacturing process of flanged horns be improved at the company JAMLI S.C.R.L? It was possible to propose a new job for the production process, based on hot forging. Likewise, a new plant layout, a 5S implementation plan, standard times for the process and finally a staff training plan were proposed. With the improvement made, it was possible to increase productivity by 400% and thus be able to meet the total demand for the product under study. It was determined that the project will have a total investment of S /. 22 495 with an internal rate of return of 53%, a net present value of S /. 49 132,56 with a termof 5 years and a payback period of 1 year, 7 months and 27 days, being a very viable and profitable project for the company under study.