产品仿制，产品的差异化和国际贸易

产品仿制，产品的差异化和国际贸易(中文1900字,英文1000字)
尼古拉斯•施密特
     当两家公司的进入和销售在两个相互依存的市场，但是产生有贸易壁垒时，本文使用霍特林方针产品差别化模型，推导了平衡产品配置和价格。这表
明，不管产品仿制，没有贸易还是产品差异化与双向或单向的贸易都是符合平衡的。

1. 简介
在英国不列颠哥伦比亚省，有几个小酿造厂明确表明他们所生产的产品是“根据1516年巴伐利亚纯度法酿造”，从而模仿德国啤酒的属性。与此相反，钟表业常常尽力将它们的产品与其它同类产品区别开来（例如斯沃琪）。啤酒酿造商可以选择分化，和制定出特殊的口味和制作程序。我的模型表明，选择仿制和分化是由于存在运输成本和关税。他们在不列颠哥伦比亚省提高德国啤酒的价格，从而影响到国内企业的地理位置。事实上，加拿大对欧洲啤酒收取的关税非常高，因为它大约是国内产品的零售价百分之三十（环球邮报1993年）。但是在某些行业，比如钟表业，由于对有关的产品的单位价值的保护和产品运输成本过低，从而使得产品实施合法的模仿并不是有利可图。

PRODUCT IMITATION, PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION
AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
By NICOLAS SCHMITT'
Using the Hotelling approach to product differentiation, this article derives
the equilibrium product configurations and prices when two firms enter and
sell in two interdependent markets separated by barriers to trade. It shows that
product imitation and no trade as well as product differentiation with two-way
or one-way trade are all consistent with the equilibrium.


1. INTRODUCTION
    In British Columbia, several microbrewers explicitly indicate on their products that they are ''brewed according to the Bavarian purity laws of 1516,'' imitating thereby a product attribute of German beers. In contrast, firms in the watch industry often go out of their way to differentiate their products (for instance the Swatch). Beers brewers could have chosen differentiation and develop a specific taste or process. My model suggests that the choice between imitation and differentiation is determined by the existence of transport costs and tariffs. They increase the price of German beers in British Columbia and, thus, affect the location decision of domestic firms. Indeed, the Canadian duty on European beers is high since it is approximately 30 percent of the retail price of domestic products (Globeand Mail 1993). In the watch industry, protection and transport costs are too low with respect to the unit value of the product for legal imitation to be profitable.