Research Joint Venture with Technology Transfer

Abstract

Kamien, Muller, and Zang (Am Econ Rev 82:1293-1306, 1992) show that an industry-wide research joint venture (RJV), compared to the case without any RJV, does not lead to better technological development or a higher consumer surplus. In contrast, we show that every non-industry-wide RJV leads to strict improvements in both measures and it also results in higher production efficiency. Furthermore, when technology transfer is possible after making R&D investment, our results continue to hold, and when research efficiency is low, these improvements are further magnified. Governments should encourage innovation through independent collaboration with technology transfer as an alternative to establishing industry-wide research consortiums.