Abstract
This article presents a non-technical survey of some recent theoretical analyses of the pricing of exhaustible natural resources and the incentives for developing resource substitutes under oligopoly, and looks in perspective at what appear to be the central considerations. Among the main conclusions that are presented are those that bear on the pace of R & D activity, the phenomenon of sleeping patents, oligopolistic pricing before and after the resource-substituting invention, the timing of innovation, and the transition from one resource base to another. It concludes with an analysis of a national R & D policy for a resource-importing country.
I am most grateful to Richard Gilbert, Geoffrey Heal and Joseph Stiglitz for illuminating discussions over the past several years on the problems discussed in this essay. For his penetrating comments on an earlier version of this essay I am indebted to Dilip Mookherjee.
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© 1982 The Scandinavian Journal of Economics
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Dasgupta, P. (1982). Resource Pricing and Technological Innovations Under Oligopoly: A Theoretical Exploration. In: Matthiessen, L. (eds) The Impact of Rising Oil Prices on the World Economy. Scandinavian Journal of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06361-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06361-1_11
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