R&D, collaboration networks, mixed markets and labour unions

This thesis is concerned with the role of state-owned companies and labour unions in influencing research and development (R&D) activity in two related contexts: when firms act as independent competitors, and when firms collaborate in their investments by forming a research network, but still remain competitors in the product market. The first chapter investigates the use of R&D subsidies, both in a mixed and a private market. We show that the socially optimal R&D subsidy is positive and increasing in the degree of technological spillovers both in a private and in a mixed duopoly, although it is lower for the former than for the latter. A comparative statics analysis of welfare levels reveals that privatisation is likely to be welfare reducing, at least for a relatively small number of private firms. [Continues.]