Codice QDD 148 Titolo Optimal investments in a patent race Data 2013-03-08 Autore/i Cerqueti, R.; Marazzina, D.; Ventura, M. Link Download full text Abstract This paper explores the optimal expenditure rate that a firm should employ to develop a new technology and pursue the registration of the related patent. Our model takes into account an economic environment with industrial competition among firms operating in the same sector and in presence of sources of uncertainty in knowledge accumulation. We develop a stochastic optimal control problem with random horizon, and solve it theoretically by adopting a dynamic programming approach. An extensive numerical analysis confirms, as suggested by previous research, that the optimal expenditure rate is an increasing function of the knowledge accumulated by the firm, but also brings out that its pattern is steeper in the early stage of the race.