Research joint venture cartels and welfare

Cooperative arrangements in R&D among otherwise competing firms have evolved as a response to the externalities that accompany such strategic investment activities. The modes of cooperation differ in several ways but particularly in the extent that they allow a more useful information-sharing and a better coordination of efforts. Sometimes firms continue to compete and simply share more information. In other cases they only coordinate efforts, and in still other instances they realize both a better coordination of investments and a better sharing of information.