Anna Rita Bennato - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Anna Rita Bennato

Social Science Research Network, 2014

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2009

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

Bounded rationality is a key concept with implications across all areas of economics. To help stu... more Bounded rationality is a key concept with implications across all areas of economics. To help students better understand the nature, causes and forms of bounded rationality in individual choice, we present a flexible classroom experiment. Beyond providing students with some first-hand evidence of bounded rationality, the experiment shows how a range of factors can prompt bounded rationality and illustrates how it can manifest itself in the form of different behaviours. The experiment can be conducted with any number of students and takes approximately 30 minutes to conduct, with a further 10-20 minutes to reflect and debrief.

Journal of Industrial and Business Economics

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2019

Abstract This paper is a retrospective evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and... more Abstract This paper is a retrospective evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy interventions after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive industry in 2012. It adopts a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D, patents, the number of new models, and their unit prices. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Our firm-level approach confirms that there is important heterogeneity across the players, which we attribute to differences in the severity of remedies required by competition authorities.

With Regulation 1/2003 the European Commission D-G for Competition has introduced administrative ... more With Regulation 1/2003 the European Commission D-G for Competition has introduced administrative fines on corporation turnover to punish any breach of article 81 and 82 of the Treaty. To confine obvious adverse effects of a too harsh punishment fines have been limited to a thirty per cent cap of the undertaking’s worldwide turnover (Guidelines 2006/C 210/02). However, the assessment of the gravity is made on a case-by-case basis for all types of infringement. As a general rule, fines are calculated as a proportion of the value of sales. In this paper we study the distortion in pricing that stems from the application of fines on turnover in an environment where cartels choose their optimal pricing under uncertainty and business cycles. Our model shows how in a dynamic setting fines may resemble the effect of an advalorem taxation. The effect of fines on prices varies depending on the position on the cycle (expected demand growing or falling). We test our model using 328 weekly data o...

LSN: Mergers (Topic), 2019

This is an ex-post evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy i... more This is an ex-post evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy interventions, using an industry case study involving the 5-to-3 consolidation of three related mergers in the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry, in 2011/12. Unlike most previous empirical papers in the merger-innovation literature, it drills down to the firm level to explore heterogeneity in the innovation response to the merger. It adopts a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R\&D and patents as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new models, and their unit prices as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties’ innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. The results confirm that there are indeed important asymmetries between the players, which are at least partly attributable to differences in the severity of remedies required by competition authorities. Methodologica...

While there is an extensive literature on the relationship between market competition and innovat... more While there is an extensive literature on the relationship between market competition and innovation at the aggregate level, there are far fewer case-specific accounts of this relationship, particularly on the effects of specific competition policy interventions on innovation. The objective of this study was to offer a detailed literature review, develop a methodological framework for ex post evaluating such impacts, collect data, and provide preliminary results on how innovation was affected by the 2012 consolidation of the HDD market (involving the Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/HGST mergers). Following a Schumpeterian trichotomy, we evaluate the impact of this consolidation on three layers of innovation: research spending, patent activity, and the characteristics of newly marketed products. Our results show a heterogeneous response, with one of the acquiring firms, Seagate, displaying increased innovation on all three levels. This is consistent with an interpretation that, n...

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2021

This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed af... more This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry. We take a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D expenditure and patent activity as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new products marketed, and their unit user costs as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties' innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Of the remaining HDD manufacturers, for Seagate we found an increase in all our innovation measures following the mergers, but for Western Digital the evidence is mixed. Methodologically, the paper draws light on some of the challenges of conducting similar case-specific retrospective studies on the impact of mergers on innovation.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

As energy markets are becoming more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as signi... more As energy markets are becoming more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as significant tools to facilitate the coordination of energy consumption and generation, encouraging the use of renewable energy. Focusing on a set of three different European countries, we disentangle the effectiveness of both economic and non-economic incentives in fostering energy trade via trading platforms. We use an incentivized survey experiment to collect data about consumers’ and prosumers’ willingness to participate in an energy trading platform. We find that the monetary incentive is not necessarily the main reason why people would choose to trade their energy, but other dimensions, such as environmental concerns, independence from the national grid, and having used the technology previously, play an important role.

Small Business Economics, 2020

New drug introductions are key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However, not all innovations a... more New drug introductions are key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However, not all innovations are the same and they may have differential effects that vary by firm size. We use quarterly sales data on UK pharmaceuticals in a dynamic panel model to estimate the impact of product (new drugs) and marketing (additional pack varieties) innovations within a therapeutic class on a firm's business unit growth. We find that product innovations lead to substantial growth in both the short and long run, whereas a new pack variety only produces short-term effects. The strategies are substitutes but the marginal effects are larger for product innovations relative to additional packs, and the effects are larger for smaller business units. Nonetheless, pack introductions offer a viable short-term growth strategy, especially for small-and medium-sized businesses.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

We develop a theoretical model to study the effects of an ad valorem taxation regime differentiat... more We develop a theoretical model to study the effects of an ad valorem taxation regime differentiated according to product characteristics (quality) within an imperfectly competitive market. Then to test our theoretical prediction we use yearly data from the Irish automobile market during the period 2004-2008, and assess the implications of this type of regime on competition and consumer welfare. By emphasizing the role played by the own-versus the cross-price elasticity, we are able to capture an important dimension in which the strategic interactions among firms play out in response to a tax change. The welfare effects of a taxation system that is tailored to product attributes are not trivial. Using a counterfactual analysis based on a homogenous tax rate, we conclude that a differentiated taxation regime benefits consumers who value quality more, while it penalizes those more sensitive to price increments. Our results confirm the extended Ramsey rule predictions. Furthermore, a symmetric increase in taxation narrows the price gap induced by asymmetries in quality and productivity, if the tax regime is homogenous, and widens it, if the tax regime is differentiated.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIP... more This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement on social welfare, when the effects on public health are taken into account. In particular, we study how the new international patent policy affects social welfare through the availability of pharmaceutical products. Extending the model developed by Grossman and Lai (Am Econ Rev 94(5):1635-1653, 2004) on optimal patent protection, this paper examines the externality generated by the intellectual property rights enforcement on our definition of public health.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed af... more This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry. We take a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D expenditure and patent activity as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new products marketed, and their unit user costs as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties' innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Of the remaining HDD manufacturers, for Seagate we found an increase in all our innovation measures following the mergers, but for Western Digital the evidence is mixed. Methodologically, the paper draws light on some of the challenges of conducting similar case-specific retrospective studies on the impact of mergers on innovation.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

This paper explores the equity implications of the adoption of energy storage technology, as a re... more This paper explores the equity implications of the adoption of energy storage technology, as a result of the potential defections from the electricity network which it could promote. Our analysis of the social benefits and distributional effects of energy self-consumption shows that it can reduce the revenues of grid operators. Our results lead to the policy recommendation that Governments devising policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions should also consider how to finance the investment in the local and central network infrastructure, in the presence of self-generation, consumption and storage by final consumers.

The World Economy, 2018

To what extent is an increased stringency of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system apt to... more To what extent is an increased stringency of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system apt to stimulate research cooperation between developed and emerging economies? To address this question, we empirically investigate how international joint research projects in the pharmaceutical sector are affected by the regime of IPR in force in the two countries involved in the collaboration. Looking at the joint signature of both patent documents and scientific articles by researchers located in developed and emerging markets, our investigation indicates two opposite effects: joint publications are fostered by stricter IPR rules, whereas joint patents are discouraged. A recently proposed theory provides a plausible rationale for this apparently contradicting result.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

We use quarterly sales data from the UK pharmaceuticals market between 2003 and 2013 and estimate... more We use quarterly sales data from the UK pharmaceuticals market between 2003 and 2013 and estimate the impact of new introductions, i.e., new products and pack varieties within an anatomical therapy class on business unit growth. Using a dynamic lag adjustment growth model that accounts for endogeneity of new introductions, we find that a new product contributes to 18 per cent growth of the business unit while a new pack variety leads to 7 per cent growth for the business unit in the long run. Further, we find that there is significant variation in growth by size of firm and that the marginal effect of additional products on growth is larger for smaller business units. However, the marginal effect of pack varieties does not differ by firm size.

Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) is an ad-valorem tax charged on the registration of all new cars i... more Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) is an ad-valorem tax charged on the registration of all new cars in Ireland, which is differentiated according to the engine size of a car and CO2 emissions. Accounting for this type of taxation we develop a simple theoretical model looking at the interaction of the taxation system with the product quality and cost efficiency in an oligopolistic market. We study its incidence on producers and consumers. Using a panel dataset on new cars sold in Ireland for the period 2004-2008, we test our predictions relying on the estimated primitives of demand and pricing. Then, a counterfactual simulation is used to numerically assess the impact of differentiated versus homogeneous ad-valorem taxation and the possibility of tax over-shifting. We show how the asymmetries relate to the two alternative types of ad-valorem of taxation.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Working Papers, 2009

This paper aims at examining whether an increased stringency of Intellectual Property Right (IPR)... more This paper aims at examining whether an increased stringency of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) protection is apt to stimulate international cooperation on research projects between developed and emerging countries. To address this issue, we look both at scientific and technological collaborations within the pharmaceutical domain, and we adopt a gravity framework to assess the impact of the IPR level on bilateral R&D cooperation. The analysis is conducted using data from patent and publication databases, and the results provide a sound test of conflicting theories on IPR enforcement and international collaborations in pharmaceutical research.

Social Science Research Network, 2014

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2009

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

Bounded rationality is a key concept with implications across all areas of economics. To help stu... more Bounded rationality is a key concept with implications across all areas of economics. To help students better understand the nature, causes and forms of bounded rationality in individual choice, we present a flexible classroom experiment. Beyond providing students with some first-hand evidence of bounded rationality, the experiment shows how a range of factors can prompt bounded rationality and illustrates how it can manifest itself in the form of different behaviours. The experiment can be conducted with any number of students and takes approximately 30 minutes to conduct, with a further 10-20 minutes to reflect and debrief.

Journal of Industrial and Business Economics

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2019

Abstract This paper is a retrospective evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and... more Abstract This paper is a retrospective evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy interventions after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive industry in 2012. It adopts a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D, patents, the number of new models, and their unit prices. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Our firm-level approach confirms that there is important heterogeneity across the players, which we attribute to differences in the severity of remedies required by competition authorities.

With Regulation 1/2003 the European Commission D-G for Competition has introduced administrative ... more With Regulation 1/2003 the European Commission D-G for Competition has introduced administrative fines on corporation turnover to punish any breach of article 81 and 82 of the Treaty. To confine obvious adverse effects of a too harsh punishment fines have been limited to a thirty per cent cap of the undertaking’s worldwide turnover (Guidelines 2006/C 210/02). However, the assessment of the gravity is made on a case-by-case basis for all types of infringement. As a general rule, fines are calculated as a proportion of the value of sales. In this paper we study the distortion in pricing that stems from the application of fines on turnover in an environment where cartels choose their optimal pricing under uncertainty and business cycles. Our model shows how in a dynamic setting fines may resemble the effect of an advalorem taxation. The effect of fines on prices varies depending on the position on the cycle (expected demand growing or falling). We test our model using 328 weekly data o...

LSN: Mergers (Topic), 2019

This is an ex-post evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy i... more This is an ex-post evaluation of how innovation changed following mergers and subsequent policy interventions, using an industry case study involving the 5-to-3 consolidation of three related mergers in the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry, in 2011/12. Unlike most previous empirical papers in the merger-innovation literature, it drills down to the firm level to explore heterogeneity in the innovation response to the merger. It adopts a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R\&D and patents as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new models, and their unit prices as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties’ innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. The results confirm that there are indeed important asymmetries between the players, which are at least partly attributable to differences in the severity of remedies required by competition authorities. Methodologica...

While there is an extensive literature on the relationship between market competition and innovat... more While there is an extensive literature on the relationship between market competition and innovation at the aggregate level, there are far fewer case-specific accounts of this relationship, particularly on the effects of specific competition policy interventions on innovation. The objective of this study was to offer a detailed literature review, develop a methodological framework for ex post evaluating such impacts, collect data, and provide preliminary results on how innovation was affected by the 2012 consolidation of the HDD market (involving the Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/HGST mergers). Following a Schumpeterian trichotomy, we evaluate the impact of this consolidation on three layers of innovation: research spending, patent activity, and the characteristics of newly marketed products. Our results show a heterogeneous response, with one of the acquiring firms, Seagate, displaying increased innovation on all three levels. This is consistent with an interpretation that, n...

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2021

This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed af... more This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry. We take a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D expenditure and patent activity as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new products marketed, and their unit user costs as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties' innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Of the remaining HDD manufacturers, for Seagate we found an increase in all our innovation measures following the mergers, but for Western Digital the evidence is mixed. Methodologically, the paper draws light on some of the challenges of conducting similar case-specific retrospective studies on the impact of mergers on innovation.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

As energy markets are becoming more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as signi... more As energy markets are becoming more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as significant tools to facilitate the coordination of energy consumption and generation, encouraging the use of renewable energy. Focusing on a set of three different European countries, we disentangle the effectiveness of both economic and non-economic incentives in fostering energy trade via trading platforms. We use an incentivized survey experiment to collect data about consumers’ and prosumers’ willingness to participate in an energy trading platform. We find that the monetary incentive is not necessarily the main reason why people would choose to trade their energy, but other dimensions, such as environmental concerns, independence from the national grid, and having used the technology previously, play an important role.

Small Business Economics, 2020

New drug introductions are key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However, not all innovations a... more New drug introductions are key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However, not all innovations are the same and they may have differential effects that vary by firm size. We use quarterly sales data on UK pharmaceuticals in a dynamic panel model to estimate the impact of product (new drugs) and marketing (additional pack varieties) innovations within a therapeutic class on a firm's business unit growth. We find that product innovations lead to substantial growth in both the short and long run, whereas a new pack variety only produces short-term effects. The strategies are substitutes but the marginal effects are larger for product innovations relative to additional packs, and the effects are larger for smaller business units. Nonetheless, pack introductions offer a viable short-term growth strategy, especially for small-and medium-sized businesses.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

We develop a theoretical model to study the effects of an ad valorem taxation regime differentiat... more We develop a theoretical model to study the effects of an ad valorem taxation regime differentiated according to product characteristics (quality) within an imperfectly competitive market. Then to test our theoretical prediction we use yearly data from the Irish automobile market during the period 2004-2008, and assess the implications of this type of regime on competition and consumer welfare. By emphasizing the role played by the own-versus the cross-price elasticity, we are able to capture an important dimension in which the strategic interactions among firms play out in response to a tax change. The welfare effects of a taxation system that is tailored to product attributes are not trivial. Using a counterfactual analysis based on a homogenous tax rate, we conclude that a differentiated taxation regime benefits consumers who value quality more, while it penalizes those more sensitive to price increments. Our results confirm the extended Ramsey rule predictions. Furthermore, a symmetric increase in taxation narrows the price gap induced by asymmetries in quality and productivity, if the tax regime is homogenous, and widens it, if the tax regime is differentiated.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIP... more This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement on social welfare, when the effects on public health are taken into account. In particular, we study how the new international patent policy affects social welfare through the availability of pharmaceutical products. Extending the model developed by Grossman and Lai (Am Econ Rev 94(5):1635-1653, 2004) on optimal patent protection, this paper examines the externality generated by the intellectual property rights enforcement on our definition of public health.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed af... more This case study is a relatively rare ex-post evaluation of how the level of innovation changed after the 5-to-3 consolidation of the worldwide hard disk drive (HDD) industry. We take a holistic view of innovation, employing four different measures: R&D expenditure and patent activity as indicators of innovative inputs, and the number of new products marketed, and their unit user costs as indicators of innovative output. This allows us to distinguish the magnitude of the merging parties' innovative efforts from the productivity of those efforts. Of the remaining HDD manufacturers, for Seagate we found an increase in all our innovation measures following the mergers, but for Western Digital the evidence is mixed. Methodologically, the paper draws light on some of the challenges of conducting similar case-specific retrospective studies on the impact of mergers on innovation.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

This paper explores the equity implications of the adoption of energy storage technology, as a re... more This paper explores the equity implications of the adoption of energy storage technology, as a result of the potential defections from the electricity network which it could promote. Our analysis of the social benefits and distributional effects of energy self-consumption shows that it can reduce the revenues of grid operators. Our results lead to the policy recommendation that Governments devising policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions should also consider how to finance the investment in the local and central network infrastructure, in the presence of self-generation, consumption and storage by final consumers.

The World Economy, 2018

To what extent is an increased stringency of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system apt to... more To what extent is an increased stringency of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system apt to stimulate research cooperation between developed and emerging economies? To address this question, we empirically investigate how international joint research projects in the pharmaceutical sector are affected by the regime of IPR in force in the two countries involved in the collaboration. Looking at the joint signature of both patent documents and scientific articles by researchers located in developed and emerging markets, our investigation indicates two opposite effects: joint publications are fostered by stricter IPR rules, whereas joint patents are discouraged. A recently proposed theory provides a plausible rationale for this apparently contradicting result.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

We use quarterly sales data from the UK pharmaceuticals market between 2003 and 2013 and estimate... more We use quarterly sales data from the UK pharmaceuticals market between 2003 and 2013 and estimate the impact of new introductions, i.e., new products and pack varieties within an anatomical therapy class on business unit growth. Using a dynamic lag adjustment growth model that accounts for endogeneity of new introductions, we find that a new product contributes to 18 per cent growth of the business unit while a new pack variety leads to 7 per cent growth for the business unit in the long run. Further, we find that there is significant variation in growth by size of firm and that the marginal effect of additional products on growth is larger for smaller business units. However, the marginal effect of pack varieties does not differ by firm size.

Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) is an ad-valorem tax charged on the registration of all new cars i... more Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) is an ad-valorem tax charged on the registration of all new cars in Ireland, which is differentiated according to the engine size of a car and CO2 emissions. Accounting for this type of taxation we develop a simple theoretical model looking at the interaction of the taxation system with the product quality and cost efficiency in an oligopolistic market. We study its incidence on producers and consumers. Using a panel dataset on new cars sold in Ireland for the period 2004-2008, we test our predictions relying on the estimated primitives of demand and pricing. Then, a counterfactual simulation is used to numerically assess the impact of differentiated versus homogeneous ad-valorem taxation and the possibility of tax over-shifting. We show how the asymmetries relate to the two alternative types of ad-valorem of taxation.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Working Papers, 2009

This paper aims at examining whether an increased stringency of Intellectual Property Right (IPR)... more This paper aims at examining whether an increased stringency of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) protection is apt to stimulate international cooperation on research projects between developed and emerging countries. To address this issue, we look both at scientific and technological collaborations within the pharmaceutical domain, and we adopt a gravity framework to assess the impact of the IPR level on bilateral R&D cooperation. The analysis is conducted using data from patent and publication databases, and the results provide a sound test of conflicting theories on IPR enforcement and international collaborations in pharmaceutical research.