纵向一体化对下游企业R&D投资的效应

The Effect of Vertical Integration on R&D Expenditure of the Downstream Firm

在由一个上游和一个下游企业组成的体系中 ,下游企业通过R&D可降低产品成本。本文研究下游企业如何随纵向一体化改变R&D投资和产品产量。研究表明 ,纵向一体化之后 ,下游企业的R&D投资和产品产量、行业利润、消费者剩余和社会总福利均增加。在纵向一体化之前 ,下游企业选择较少的R&D投资和产品产量的原因是它作出决策时没有考虑上游企业的利润。最后以一个特例对研究结果作进一步说明。

The downstream firm can reduce its product's cost through R&D in a system composed of an upstream and a downstream firm. This paper studies how the downstream firm changes its R&D expenditure and output according to vertical integration. It is shown that,after the vertical integration, the R&D expenditure and the output of the downstream firm,the industry profit,the consumer's surplus and the social welfare are all increased. Before the vertical integration,the downstream firm chooses less R&D expenditure and output because the upstream profit is not taken into account. A special example is given to further demonstrate the results of this paper.